Professional Education and the Public Policy Agenda

摘要

During the past decade the archival domain has increasingly come to the attention of public policymakers, especially within the context of the current government's cultural and social agendas (as interpreted to the public sector through the Museums Libraries and Archives Council). As an integral part of the domain, university archive programmes are fully aware of such developments; but at the same time they do not align themselves with any particular section of the workforce. Public sector agendas are of direct relevance only to a part of the archives domain, while public policy itself is—inherently— characterised by shifting priorities. Thus the key element of professional education should be to give students the confidence to meet the demands of any future working environment, whatever the business of a particular employer.