NCPA Strengthens Ties with European Institutions in Switzerland and Italy

At the invitation of prominent European academic institutions, Associate Professor Wang Jue, Director of the Nanyang Centre for Public Administration (NCPA) and Professor Liu Hong, Associate Vice President (International Engagement), NTU and Director (Research and Executive Education), NCPA at NTU Singapore, led a delegation on a working visit to Switzerland and Italy to strengthen international academic collaborations with European partner institutions.

In Switzerland, they visited the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) and the European University Institute. They held discussions with the municipal governments to gain insights into Swiss models of local government and governance practices. These exchanges also serve to foster mutual understanding and explore avenues for future collaboration in public administration research, education, and practice.

At the ZHAW School of Management and Law (SML), Dean and Professor Reto Steiner and his team welcomed the NCPA delegation and held extensive discussions on potential cooperation in student exchange, faculty visits, and joint research. Both institutions identified artificial intelligence and public governance as key areas of shared interest, representing a significant frontier in global policy innovation.

Both Prof Wang Jue and Prof Liu Hong reaffirmed NCPA’s commitment to strengthening collaboration with their Swiss partners and advancing comparative governance research that bridges Asian and European perspectives.

To bridge academic theory and real-world governance, the delegation also conducted field visits to key government institutions in Zurich where officials from the The Zurich Center for Economic Development and the Zurich's Urban Development Department (STEZ) provided structured briefings on the city’s two-tier governance system, processes and integrated urban development model, offering valuable case studies on approached to citizen participation in decision-making, for public administration education.

In Italy, the delegation participated in the 2025 Annual Meeting of the OECD Network of Schools of Government, held in Florence and hosted by the European University Institute's School of Transnational Governance (STG). The meeting convened nearly 100 delegates from over 30 countries, including representatives from OECD headquarters and deans of schools of government, senior experts, and policymakers, to address the future role of public sector leadership, innovation, and education in governance.

The OECD Global Network of Schools of Government is an official platform established by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to facilitate the exchange of experiences and best practices among public sector training institutions. Since its launch in 2014, the network has held annual meetings in various member countries, with the mission of ensuring that senior public administrators are equipped with the competencies needed to address current and future governance challenges.

At the meeting, NCPA and STG agreed on strategic cooperation in joint student training, collaborative research, and immersive executive education. The discussions were led by Professor George Papakonstantinou, Academic Director of the Florence School of Transnational Governance at the European University Institute and former Greek Minister of Finance, alongside senior academic leader.

This visit marked a substantive and forward-looking step in expanding NCPA’s engagement with European partners. The productive exchanges laid the groundwork for tangible collaboration across student development, research innovation, and executive education. It also reaffirmed NCPA’s commitment to advancing a tripartite cooperation model that connects academic institutions, government agencies, and international organisations. Anchored in Southeast Asia with a growing global footprint, NCPA continues to build momentum toward a cross-continental network for knowledge exchange, public sector capacity building, and policy innovation.