2024 National Public Administration Case Competition - February 14 to 24, 2024.
On behalf of the Canadian Association of Programs in Public Administration (CAPPA) and the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy (as this year’s host school), we are pleased to invite your school to participate in the 2024 National Public Administration Student Case Competition. I have the honour of being the lead organizer this year, and can be reached at Justin.Longo@URegina.ca. Working with me to organize the event is Karen Jaster-Laforge, who can be reached at Karen.Jaster@URegina.ca; please cc Karen on all communications.
This year’s case competition will again be held online, with the main event on Saturday February 24, 2024. As with previous years, we will hold an opening event on the evening of Wednesday, February 14, 2024.
The draft rules and procedures for this event can be found online at https://bit.ly/2024-cappa-
The deadline for expressions of interest is October 27th, 5 pm EDT. An email expressing interest can be sent directly to the above-mentioned emails. Please include the name / email contact of the faculty coach(es) leading your team (if that information is available). We are able to accommodate a maximum of 14 teams this year. All participating teams must be from CAPPA-member programs, and will be entered on a first-come-first-serve basis on the time your email is received.
If there is sufficient interest, Robert Shepherd of Carleton University (and last year’s host) will convene a coach feedback session in early November to hear about what did and did not work well last year, and to discuss possible changes to the rules and procedures for the case competition.
Thank you for your continued support of the National Public Administration Student Case Competition!
Best regards,
Justin Longo and Karen Jaster-Laforge
The National Annual Public Administration Case Competition is a joint project of CAPPA and the Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC). Canadian universities that have programs in public administration may compete. It is designed to highlight the excellence of Canadian public administration programs and students, and to provide a valuable learning experience for students.
Participants are organized into teams and presented with a "real world" public administration case, with accompanying background material. They work together to develop the best solution over a day. Teams then deliver presentations for judges. Two rounds may be required, and universities with more than one team may have their own internal competitions to determine who will represent the university.
- Some rules will vary from year to year, but typically the case presented one day before presentations to judges who represent key players in the context of the case (e.g. a cabinet committee). Teams will then go through the stages of case study review:
- Problem identification
- Research/Analysis of issues
- Identification of risks, opportunities and complexities
- Desired outcome and policy approach Issues of implementation and suggested course of action (including financial implications)
- Issues of communication, collaboration and stakeholders and suggested courses of action
Teams then develop 30-minute presentations that are made to a panel of judges. An assessment rubric will be provided before work begins, and time limits are strictly enforced.
Quality of the presentations is always high. A list of winners is available on our Honour Roll page.
Past Cases and the Results of past Competitions
2024 Case competition – INVITATION to take part
2023 Case Competition
