News

» Go to news main

School of Public Administration hosts policy case competition

Posted by Miriam Breslow on February 20, 2015 in Students

(L to R) Bruce Manion (coach) with Dalhousie's School of Public Administration team: Meggie MacMichael, Gareth Savage, TJ Courtney, Erik Fraser

 

Students from 11 schools of public administration across Canada descended on Dalhousie earlier this month for the 2015 National Policy Case Competition (NPCC). Begun in 2012, this prestigious competition—unique in Canada—brings together graduate students in public policy and administration to study the process of making public policy decisions and to practise making some of these decisions themselves. The weekend is sponsored by the Institute of Public Administration of Canada and the Canadian Association of Programs in Public Administration. At last year’s event in Toronto, Dalhousie’s team took the silver medal.

The weekend began with a Friday evening welcome session for the participants, and on Saturday the teams got down to work. Each team had been presented with the same case three weeks before, and they spent the morning presenting to two sets of judges. After the first round, the teams selected to continue performed in a lightning round competition. The cases presented the students with possible scenarios: a threat by ISIS to Canada’s infrastructure; and protests at the Toronto PanAm Games against the lack of a national inquiry into murdered and missing aboriginal women. These topics reflect the competition’s goals to introduce students to the complexities of real-world policy decisions. Judging the students’ submissions were members of the public and private sector: Marta Morgan, Canadian Associate Deputy Minister of Finance; Toby Fyfe, Vice-President of the Institute on Governance; Sadie Sassine, former Executive Director of the Nova Scotia Federal Council; and Mark MacDonald, a Senior Partner with KPMG. Ultimately, Simon Fraser took the gold medal, with silver going to the University of Toronto.

Dalhousie’s team consisted of SPA students Meggie MacMichael, TJ Courtney, Erik Fraser and Gareth Savage, who were coached by Bruce Manion. Although they lost narrowly in the first round to Simon Fraser, Mr. Manion commented that they performed well. “This was my third year … working with the selected students to get ready for the competition,” he said. “I am always extremely impressed by all of the work that our students put into getting ready for this competition and even more impressed by how they handle themselves at the event.”

Mr. Manion commented on the benefits of the NPCC to the students, who “learn so much about how the policy development process really works and get an opportunity that usually only falls to fairly senior and experienced policy analysts.” Student TJ Courtney agreed: “The case competition was an incredible experience in bridging the gap between policy in academia and policy in practice,” he noted, adding that the experience “will undoubtedly be valuable heading into our public sector internships and careers.”

While the case competition led to increased confidence for the students, it did so for the judges too. “Our judges … always leave with a great sense of optimism for the future of the public sector in Canada,” he observed. In addition to this positive impression, Mr. Manion noted that Dalhousie impressed with its hosting. After a weekend of rigorous work, Dalhousie’s volunteers and organizers, headed by Ian Stones and Krista Cullymore of SPA, hosted a closing social, which included, as Mr. Manion noted, “a fine dose of East Coast hospitality.”