Introduction

Since the 1970s, the Netherlands has witnessed widespread and successful developments of educational programmes in the policy sciences. Various universities have developed their own variants, emphasising different disciplines, domains or scales of policy development and management. Elements of policy analysis, of both the more academic (study of policies and policy processes) and practice-oriented variants, are present in most of these programmes, in different degrees. Specific courses labelled ‘Policy Analysis’ illustrate the variety of the field, while courses typically covering a specific type of policy analysis are sometimes taught under another label. Policyanalytic content is also widely found in educational programmes focusing on specific policy fields, notably, environmental management and infrastructure planning.

As a special case, the Delft University of Technology educational and research programmes are discussed in greater detail as they are of particular interest for ex ante, client-oriented policy analysis. Educated in an engineering environment, graduates combine knowledge of engineering and systems analysis with the policy sciences. These programmes provide a novel synthesis of two complementary traditions: on the one hand, the rational, systems-analytic policy-analysis tradition originally pioneered by the RAND Corporation; on the other, the policy science view on policycentric, networked decision-making, emphasising the social interaction and strategic behaviour of actors in policy arenas. The programme explicitly acknowledges the multi-actor, multi-method, multi-style, multi-value characteristics of policy analysis, and it exposes the students to the variety of perspectives on, and methods and tools for, policy analysis, using case-based project work as an important teaching method. The overview confirms the widespread presence of policy-analytic content in the Netherlands’ university education landscape, and its relevance for society, as labour market responses to these programmes have been favourable, graduates finding their way into jobs in both the public and private sectors.

This chapter, first, provides a broad sketch of these developments, indicating the proliferation and variety of courses and educational programmes offered. Next, as a special case of institutionalisation of ex ante, client-oriented policy analysis, the programme in Systems Engineering, Policy Analysis and Management at the Delft University of Technology will be described in greater detail.