Towards a Framework for Digital Governance Curricula: What Skills and Knowledge do Governance Students Need?

Digital technologies are rapidly becoming deeply entrenched in society. These technologies provide challenges and opportunities for democratic and organizational processes, and social interactions between governments and citizens. In this study, we focus on the skills governance students need to obtain to fully grasp the opportunities and challenges raised by digitalization in the public sector and society at large. Using a design approach, we first identify two distinct categories of skills: operational and reflective digital skills, based on the literature, followed by a round of interviews to explore these skills in governance curricula. This resulted in a framework for Digital Governance Curricula based on skills and (future) roles of students as a) engaged citizens, b) professionals, and c) academics. Following, we test and refine our framework based on an assessment and development of three digital governance programmes. Based on our study, we derive implications for digital governance literature and lessons for digital governance course designers.