Honey report on higher education for public service in the year 1967 are given below:
In 1966, an affiliate of the American Society for Public Administration asked John C. Honey of the Syracuse University ‘to undertake an evaluative study of Public Administration as a field of study in the U.S. Universities.
Image Source: i.ytimg.com
ADVERTISEMENTS:
The Honey Report, submitted in 1967 is significant in the sense that it disclosed the true state of health of the discipline of Public Administration. It sought to broaden the subject’s scope by making it conterminous with the total governmental process (executive, legislative, and Judicial). It identified four problems confronting it and suggested immediate action on them:
1. Insufficient resources at disposal of the discipline (students, faculty and research funds).
2. Intellectual argument over the status of the discipline (Is it a discipline, a science, or profession?)
ADVERTISEMENTS:
3. Institutional weakness (inadequacy of public administration departments).
4. Gap between scholars of public administration and the practicing administrators.
Honey Report made eleven recommendations of which the main important ones are:
1. The establishment of a National Commission on Public Service Education to exert broad leadership in meeting the needs of government for educated manpower.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
2. A substantial fellowship programme for post-graduate students who are preparing for public service at the masters and doctors levels and also including preparation for professional degrees.
3. Internship programmes to operate at federal state and local levels for post-graduate students and advanced undergraduates preparing for public service careers.
4. A special fellowship programme for those planning to become teachers in schools and programmers of public administration and public affairs.
5. A programme to, provide opportunities for practical governmental experience to university faculties engaged in public affairs teaching and research.
6. A programme of assistance to universities for public affairs curricular experimentation and development.
7. Support for university personnel engaged in research on governmental and public affairs issues.
The Honey Report aroused interest as well as controversy in the United States. What it said was important but what it did not say carried even greater meaning. It for instance, said nothing about Public Administrations role in a strife-torn tumultuous society of the period.
The report induced many scholars to think deeply about its place and role in the society and thus it, in a way, acted as a catalyst in encouraging discussion on its adequacy in solving societal problems.