The future of Public Administration and Policy research at the UT looks promising according to the Quality Assurance Netherlands Universities (QANU). A visitation committee judged three research programs of the School of Management and Governance on quality, productivity, relevance and (financial) /viability feasibility. Scores ranging from one (unsatisfactory) to five (excellent) are awarded.
The Sustainable Innovation group lead by Hans Bressers, professor of Environmental Policy, scored a five (excellent) in all fields. The extra boost for Bressers’ research group was the conclusion in the visitation report that stated ‘IGS will be able to maintain the high score in the coming years.’
The two other research programs, Higher Education and Research in the Knowledge Society of Professor Jurgen Enders and Innovation of Governance lead by Professor Jacques Thomassen, both scored three fives. Only in the area of productivity did both programs score four (very good). The group of Thomassen was recommended to attract more PhD students, because the number of PhD students was according to the report, ‘too low for a group with such an amount of prominent researchers.’ This point was already recognized in a self-evaluation report.
The visitation committee consisted of professors, Hans-Dieter Klingemann of the Canadian Simon Fraser University, Vincent Lynn Meek of the University of Melbourne, Kris Deschouwer of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Free University of Brussels) and Peter Knoepfel of the Université de Lausanne (Lausanne University).
