Program Requirements

The M.P.A. degree requires a total of 36-39 semester hours depending on the student's career status at the time of admission. Students admitted as pre-career students are required to complete 39 semester hours and in-career students are required to complete 36 semester hours. In-career students are those who hold a full time professional position at the time of their application, and pre-career students are those who are not classified as in-career at the time of application.  Of the required semester hours, 27 hours are to be 5000-level courses or above. Completion of the program is contingent upon passing a written portfolio.

M.P.A. Requirements Checksheet

The maximum course load for M.P.A. students is 12 hours, and 9 hours is considered a full load. Graduate assistants must take and complete 9 hours to maintain their assistantships.

I.      Required Courses (18 semester hours)

PLSC 5193 Seminar in Public Administration
PLSC 5113 Seminar in Human Resource Management
PLSC 5123 Public Budgeting and Finance
PLSC 5163 Public Policy
PADM 5913 Policy Analysis: Theory & Practice
PADM 5803 Quantitative Methods Analysis

 

II.    Restricted Electives: Select 2 courses from the following 10 courses (6 semester hours): 

PLSC 4283 Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations 
PLSC 5103 Human Behavior in Complex Organizations
PLSC 5133 Nonprofit Management 
PLSC 5143 Administrative Law  
PLSC 5173 Community Development 
PLSC 5243 Seminar in State Politics and Policy  
PADM 5813 Methods in Public Management Information
PADM 5823 Grant Writing for the Social Sciences 
PADM 584V Special Topics in Public Administration 
PADM 5903 Risk and Public Policy

III.     Focused Studies: 

A minimum of 9 or 12 graduate semester hours, depending on the student's career status when admitted to the program may be chosen in PLSC/PADM and other disciplines with approval of the Graduate Coordinator. The Graduate Coordinator, in consultation with the student, will develop a set of relevant graduate courses that will help the student in meeting career objectives. Focused Studies may be developed for students interested in fields such as community development, environmental policy and sustainability, health services administration, higher education administration, non-profit management, public policy analysis, and recreation and tourism. Other focused studies may be exercised with the consent, advice and approval of the Graduate Coordinator. 

IV.     All students must complete and submit a portfolio of their work.

Under certain circumstances, including scheduling difficulties, other similar and/or suitable courses may be substituted for those in the core. Any such substitution requires approval of the M.P.A. Program Director.

Transfer Credit

Courses may be transferred to a student's M.P.A. program from other accredited institutions. Such work must have been taken for graduate resident credit and passed with a grade of at least "B", and be approved by the Graduate Coordinator and the Dean of the Graduate School. Normally no more than 6 hours may be transferred.