Problem-based Learning in European Public Affairs

Abstract

The Universiteit Maastricht and the European Institute for Public Administration, both located in Maastricht, the Netherlands, offer an English-language graduate program leading to the degree of Master of Arts in European Public Affairs (EPA).The degree is designed as a program of professional education in European affairs.The challenge of professional education is to create a learning environment that integrates academic expertise with learning by doing.This article describes how the EPA master’s degree uses problem-based learning as an educational methodology and describes the programs’s educational objectives and professional goals. Subsequently, the authors distinguish two different teaching methodologies—teacher- and studentcentered learning—and discuss problembased learning as a particular form of student-centered learning. The authors propose a form of problem-based learning suited for public affairs education based on project management techniques and briefly overview how the program has worked in practice.