CURRICULUM
The M.P.A. degree involves :
- 9 core courses (27 semester credits).
- 3 courses in a concentration (9 semester credits).
- An internship for pre-service students. *The internship is required of all students who do not have at least two years of professional experience in public service organization. The internship requires full-time professional work in a public service organization for ten weeks.
- Successful completion of the comprehensive exam.
Core Curriculum:
Note: For some of the courses, there are links to Adobe pdf versions of current or recent course syllabi. These versions have been made available to students who are curious about the format of previous presentations of the courses. However, these versions are not substitutes for the official course syllabi (i.e., the hard copies of syllabi that are distributed on the first day of classes).
Core courses:
POLS 7200-- Leadership and Organization Theory
POLS 7220-- Politics and Bureaucracy
POLS 7290-- Ethics for Public Service
POLS 7300-- Public Budgeting
POLS 7320-- Public Policy Analysis
POLS 7380-- Public Personnel Administration
POLS 7600-- Statistics for Public Management
POLS 7660-- Information and Operations Management
POLS 7890-- Public Management
Concentration Courses:
Also required are three courses in a concentration. The concentrations currently available are:
- Criminal Justice Administration
CRJU 6004 -- Correctional Administration
CRJU 6020 -- Law Enforcement and Management Systems
CRJU/POLS 6112 -- The Judicial System and Judicial
Process
CRJU 6440 -- Criminal Justice Administration
CRJU 6550 -- Law and Society
CRJU 7900 -- Special Topics in Criminal Justice
CRJU 7940 -- Independent Study in Criminal Justice
POLS 7940 -- Court Administration*
This is a traditional track.
Students pursuing this concentration may select nine
semester hours of electives from any of the courses
listed in the other concentrations or from the following
list, subject to approval by the faculty advisor.
POLS 6106 -- State and Local
Government
POLS 6111 -- The Presidency
POLS 6310 -- Political Leadership
POLS 6380 -- Marketing for Nonprofit Organizations
POLS 7250 -- Government and Business
POLS 7420 -- Seminar in Intergovernmental Administration
POLS 7460 -- Local Government Administration
POLS 7580 -- Raising Funds and Attracting Grants
POLS 7640 -- Technology in Public Management
POLS 7810 -- Administrative Law
POLS 7900 -- Special Topics in Public Administration
POLS 7940 -- Independent Study in Public Administration
PSYC 6690 -- Organizational Behavior
- Public Health Administration
HADM 5501 -- Health Care Systems*
HADM 5502 -- Public Health Administration*
HADM 5801 -- Research Methods in Health Care
* Currently, these courses are offered only by
independent study.
Internship:
Pre-service students are also required to do an internship for one semester. Students who have two years of full-time experience in public administration and related areas are usually exempt from the internship requirement. Students must meet with their advisors to determine exemption from internship requirements. Pre-service students must meet with their advisors for further information about setting up, completing, and receiving credit for an internship (prior to scheduling an internship).
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Most courses meet on Monday and/or Wednesday evenings.
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Refer also to the "Regulations of the MPA Program" (just click on the link).
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Notice about the style of research papers: It is mandatory that M.P.A. students use the style of research papers prescribed by the American Psychological Association (APA). The current version of the APA style manual is available from virtually all bookstores and from on-line book vendors. Each new student in the program is advised to purchase a copy of the APA style manual and to apply the contents in all respects in the composition of every research paper. Please note that the M.P.A. faculty has prescribed some modifications to the APA style manual;
click here to view these modifications and click here to view a sample paper that conforms to these requirements.
