The Centre for Public Policy at the University of Glasgow is heading into its second year of operations, and one of our key programmes of work are what we call ‘Policy Schools’. These Policy Schools are professional development programmes (or Executive Education) delivered by the Centre in collaboration with our key policy partners – usually government. In 2024 we piloted these Policy Schools with partners in the Cabinet Office and the Scottish Government. The UPEN Conference was an excellent opportunity for us to share our insights and to gather feedback from the expertise of UPEN members. Not many delegates had undertaken a policy school before, so for many this was a new policy engagement activity to consider. Here we share a bit about our work and reflections from the conference.
The Demand for Professional Development
One of the founding remits of the Centre was to deliver executive education for policy professionals. This is due to the recognition that limited professional development opportunities exist for civil servants outside of their own in-house provision, although there is a long history of public administration teaching and practice in the UK.
The demand for public sector training remains even as austerity measures have reshaped budgets at all levels of government. The complex challenges facing government – from fiscal sustainability to artificial intelligence – have only increased the need for bespoke, practical, and impactful education. Unfortunately, the supply of such programmes is patchy and largely focused in the Southeast, creating a gap between what the public sector needs and what academia can offer. One of the challenges which came up during our seminar was the cost implications of these schools, which is a challenge as government budgets are stretched. Some attendees reflected that there was an expectation from civil servants that universities would cover the costs of executive education, which others reflected was unrealistic and unsustainable.
Our Approaches
Recognising this unmet need, the Centre for Public Policy (CPP) has piloted several executive education models, each designed in close collaboration with government partners. These include the Cabinet Office Policy School on Data Science and AI, where University of Glasgow researchers provided insights into how emerging technologies could shape the future of policymaking. Entirely demand-led by the Cabinet Office, we served as a key broker of expertise to meet the needs of our partners for our first School.
Our Scottish Government Policy School brought together 60 civil servants for deep dives into public service reform, strategy, fiscal sustainability, and intergovernmental relations. It was co-designed from the ground up, ensuring relevance and immediate applicability. Most notably, many participants expressed that this was one of the first opportunities they’d had to engage in this kind of reflective, structured learning.
One of the less formalised professional development activities we deliver are our Cabinet Office Lunch ‘n’ Learn sessions, a set of seminars covering research on key policy themes such as mission-led government. These shorter, targeted sessions allow us to provide a brokerage role and platform research directly to Cabinet Office stakeholders on topics identified by our partners.
During our seminar we discussed the opportunity for influence and effective policy engagement with government through executive education. We reflected that the policy schools were an excellent opportunity to connect policymakers with our research, but the priority needed to be ensuring the learning outcomes of each school were met.
Delivering these programmes is not without its challenges, cost being the biggest one. Participants in our seminar agreed running successful executive education requires not only academic expertise but also administrative coordination, dedicated space, legal and financial frameworks, communications support, and skilled facilitation. However, the return on this investment is multifaceted.
Evaluating the Benefits
The purpose of this UPEN conference was to reflect on evaluation and impact. In the broadest sense of the word, there is the clear impact to these policy schools. Civil servants gain access to learning they otherwise wouldn’t receive, and our researchers are able to mobilise their expertise directly to policymakers. Second, these initiatives help build lasting relationships with emerging leaders in government, relationships that often lead to further activity and more impact. Third, from an academic perspective, these interactions offer valuable insights into public sector challenges, allowing researchers to refine their work and target real policy needs.
As we transition from the pilot stage of these schools we will continue to monitor their long-term impact and look to build on what we’ve learned. So far this programme of work has been able to demonstrate how our University can meaningfully support the public sector – not only by meeting their professional development needs but also, in the broader sense, by contributing to better policymaking and implementation and increasing research impact.
