Course Work

Admission Requirements || Coursework || Internship || MPA Guide || Professional Development

COURSEWORK

Core Curriculum

Core requirements (21 credit hours plus 6 hours of internship/ thesis/ additional coursework for a total of 27 credit hours):
POSC 6003 Techniques of Political & Public Administration Research
POSC 6533 Policy Analysis and Evaluation
POSC 6543 Administrative Behavior
POSC 6553 Public Budgeting and Finance
POSC 6563 Seminar in Public Administration
POSC 6583 Computer Applications in Public Administration
POSC 6593 Seminar in Human Resources Management
POSC 6603?6 Internship in Public Administration (or Thesis or 6 hours in Political Science).

Research Core

In order to develop research skills the MPA program has developed a tracking system through the courses Seminar in Public Administration (POSC 6563), Policy Analysis and Evaluation (POSC 6533) and Techniques of Political & Public Administration Research (POSC 6003), as well as Computer Applications in Public Administration (POSC 6583). While the track will not be formally required, students are advised to take the following sequence of courses in order: Seminar in PA (Fall First Year); Policy Analysis and Evaluation (Spring First Year); and Techniques (Fall Second Year).


MPA CORE COURSE ROTATION

Fall Semester Spring Semester Summer I/II
Computer Applications Administrative Behavior Grant Writing
Sup CT Politics & Law
Techniques of PA Research Public Budgeting & Finance
Seminar in Public Admin Policy Analysis
Human Resource Mgt.
Managing Local Government Urban Politics
Bold denotes core courses.

Restricted Electives in Public Administration and American Politics

Six hours from to be selected from POSC courses listed below:
POSC 6113 Intergovernmental Relations
POSC 6123 Urban Politics
POSC 6133 Seminar in Political Parties and Political Behavior
POSC 6143 Seminar in American Government and Politics
POSC 6153 The Supreme Court, Politics and the Law
POSC 6173 Environmental Policy Processes
POSC 6413 Seminar in Political Theory/Ethics and Public Policy
POSC 6503 Managing Local Government
POSC 6513 Administrative Law
POSC 6523 Decision Making
POSC 6573 Grant Writing

Unrestricted Electives

Nine hours of electives from Political Science, or from any field for which the student meets course prerequisites, to be selected with the approval of the advisor. The primary purpose of this group of electives is to permit a MPA student to study areas of government and non-profit policy and its administration that is of special professional interest. A coherent package of courses and an internship can be arranged to gain a better understanding of various public management subfields.