Since December 2009, at the Faculty of Law of Ivane
TSU Faculty of Law in cooperation with the University of Speyer runs the English-language Masters program "Public Administration", which serves to train civil servants, who will understand their duties and the requirements of a modern public administration. Modules of the program are planned for 2 years. In the framework of the program, basic lectures will be held in "tandem-format", which means that European and local professors will prepare and conduct joint lecture courses. At our Master’s Program, the lecturers are such famous scientists and professors as Karl-Peter Sommermann, Andreas Knorr, Herman Hill, and Ulrich Stelkens, whose professionalism is known not only in Europe but all over the world. The partners of German professors were/ are such scientists and practitioners, as Paata Turava, Davit Narmania, Irakli Kobakhidze, Maia Kopaleishvili, Nani Macharashvili, and others…
The program is intended not only for students but as well for those who are already working in state institutions and want to improve their qualification. At the end of the first academic year, the students have two- month mandatory internship in different state institutions of Georgia. At the end of the second academic year, they are able to make a 2-month internship in different institutions of European countries. Students of our program already made their internships in different institutions of Germany: German Federal Chamber in Bonn, the Ministry of Justice in Mainz, Ministry of Economy in Berlin, Georgian embassy in Berlin, etc. After completing the international internship, students are invited to Speyer city for 2-week summer school. "Volkswagen Foundation" - "Volkswagenstiftung" provides the program with full financial support, which includes all expenses concerning the arrival of foreign lecturers, their salaries, also all expenses related to the summer school and students’ internships in the foreign countries and expenses concerning other organizational issues.
In addition to the Masters program, on the basis of TSU cooperation with Speyer city, also a scholarship for already practicing lawyers and public officials are available to make scientific researches in Speyer. In the framework of this project, the scholarship was given to two persons in 2011 and to three persons in 2012.
In July of 2011, a business meeting was held in Speyer between responsible persons from the Faculty of Law (TSU) and representatives of the University of Administrative Sciences Speyer. At this meeting, in addition to the above-mentioned projects, was raised the issue about the foundation of “Institute of Administrative Sciences" in the framework of TSU-Speyer cooperation. The Institute aims to support and develop science and practice, as well as, giving recommendations which are based on the scientific basis to the public administration sector of Georgia in the framework of both -national and international cooperation.
The founders of the Institute are Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, the government (in this case, represented by the Ministry of Finance) and German University of Administrative Sciences Speyer. Members of the Institute are scientists, lawyers, and other individuals or legal entities. The highest governing body of the Institute of Administrative Sciences is the Board of the Institute. The Board consists of at least 6 members, where two members represent the faculty of law of Tbilisi State University, two members represent the government and the other two are representatives of the Speyer University of Administrative Sciences.
Since the day of its foundation, Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University plays an important role in the history of Georgia. It was always educating professionals and it was an author of many successful innovative ideas. Also nowadays, we want to participate in the progress and success of the State. The State should be the main customer and supporter in the field of the training and retraining of civil servants. This idea is not achievable without the participation of the State, because our work must be in accordance with the State’s requirements, which refers to the process of training and retraining of civil servants.