The University and SPEA offer a program on comparative public policy and administration in Germany, the European Union, and the United States during the summer term 2012. Five seminars taught in English will provide an overview of major problems of public management, European economic integration; Local government and administrative modernization from a comparative perspective; Policy-making in the European Union and its effects on member states; Environmental policy and trade in the WTO. Highlights of the program will be excursions to the German Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe, the European Parliament and the Council of Europe in Strasbourg (France), and to the picturesque city of Heidelberg.

SPEA graduate students and select undergraduates will participate in the program as part of their regular program in public administration. Students enrolled at Speyer university are welcome to participate in one or more seminars of the program as part of their regular curriculum. Students have to meet the normal seminar requirements of the university: Submission of a paper and an oral presentation both in English.

The University and SPEA also offer a Certificate of Participation. SPEA students have to meet the requirements for 4-6 credit points. Speyer students have to participate in all five seminars. In this case, a paper and an oral presentation have to be given in a seminar of the students’ choice. Furthermore, presentations of assigned readings are required in two seminars of student’s choice where papers are not written.

The program will provide German and US students with a unique opportunity to explore major problems of public policy and administration in Germany, the European Union, and the United States, and to share their experiences coming from different cultures.