Doctor of Philosophy in Public
Affairs
http://www.utdallas.edu/epps/public-affairs/
Faculty
Professors: Marie Chevrier, Euel Elliott, L. Douglas Kiel, Murray
Leaf, Richard Scotch
Associate Professors: Paul Battaglio, Simon Fass, Douglas
Goodman, Jeremy Hall
Assistant Professors: Young-joo
Lee, Meghna Sabharwal
Clinical Professors: Donald Arbuckle, Robert Whelan
Clinical Assistant Professor: Kimberly Aaron
Mission
The mission of the Ph.D. in Public
Affairs program is to prepare students for academic careers or high-level
management positions in public and non-profit organizations by assuring that
they gain competency at an advanced level in the core subject matters and
methodologies that are central to the study of Public Affairs. Through
instruction and research, the faculty will help students obtain a firm
understanding of the broad intellectual tradition of public administration and
related fields. It will integrate both traditional and innovative methods of
educational delivery and emphasize the application of theory to practice.
Objectives
The Doctor of Philosophy in Public
Affairs degree is an interdisciplinary doctoral program that prepares graduates
to assume either positions in academe, research producing organizations or
positions of administrative authority in public (government, public school
districts), quasi-public (healthcare, insurance), and nonprofit (providers,
foundations) organizations. The degree combines innovative and traditional
methods of educational delivery and emphasizes the integration and application
of theory to practice. The guiding philosophy of the degree is that
"public affairs" involves more than mere functional administration,
policy implementation or quantitative policy analysis. Rather, doctoral
education in public affairs requires an interface between the traditions of
public management, decision science, and policy analysis and processes with a
practical appreciation for the challenges of maintaining and building
institutions of governance and a civic culture in a complex, democratic
society.
The PhD program in Public Affairs is
a cohort program. The program requires 42 hours of coursework plus relevant
doctoral dissertation hours. Well-prepared students (for example, those with a
master’s degree in public administration, public affairs, public policy,
business administration, health administration, or education administration)
may be able to complete the course requirements and the dissertation within 3
years from their initial enrollment. Students in each cohort take 6 hours of
classes each fall, spring and summer semester. This allows students to complete
the core courses and elective in 7 consecutive semesters of enrollment.
Students will generally start the production of the dissertation during the
seventh semester of enrollment. Entering cohorts begin each fall semester. This
approach produces shared experiences and progress through the program that
enrich student learning and student research.
Faculty Commitments
The faculty of the PhD program in
Public Affairs is committed to producing clear and specific results for our
students. Thus, the specific objectives for all graduates of the PhD in Public
Affairs program are:
1. To Demonstrate Comprehensive and
Deep Knowledge: Students will demonstrate their
knowledge of the interface between the traditions of public management,
decision science, and policy analysis and processes with a practical
appreciation for the challenges of maintaining and building institutions of
governance and a civic culture in a complex, democratic society.
2. To Understand and Apply Theories
and Processes of Knowledge Acquisition:
Students, as executive level administrators, will have a solid grounding in
theory and in the process of knowledge acquisition through research that is
essential for institutional maintenance and renewal.
3.
To Produce Scholarly Manuscripts and Publications: Students, as
scholars, will have the ability to produce scholarly manuscripts based on extensive
practical experience or field-based research that are worthy of publication in
the journals of the field.
4. To Develop, Present, and Defend Complex Ideas: Students
will have the ability to develop, present, and defend both orally and in
writing complex ideas based on in-depth scholarly research.
Facilities
Students have access to the
computing facilities in the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences
and the University’s Computing Center. The School has two computing
laboratories which house over 30 computers that are network linked and equipped
with major social science software packages, including E-Views, R, RATS, SPSS,
and STATA. A computerized geographic information system, the Lexis Nexis database, and Westlaw are also available for student
use. The University’s Computing Center provides personal computers and UNIX
workstations.
Admission Procedures and Policies
Application Deadlines: The Ph.D.
program in Public Affairs is a cohort program allowing new groups of students
to start each fall semester. Cohorts only start during fall semesters. Students
intending to start with a fall cohort must submit their applications by March 1
of that year. Students admitted to the program, but who do not hold one
of the master’s degrees noted above, may be required to take master’s level
courses in public management, basic statistics, financial management, budgeting
or economics.
Application/Admission Requirements:
Prospective students must complete the University’s graduate application form
and arrange to have GRE scores and transcripts of all college coursework sent
to UTD. A graduate GPA of 3.0 or better and a minimum combined math and verbal
GRE score of 1100 are expected. Three letters of recommendation are also
required. Applicants must submit a written statement that should, at a minimum,
include: (1) the nature of the student’s current work situation and
responsibilities; (2) responsibilities for large scale/strategic issues in
their work environment; (3) the nature and frequency of interactions with
organizational stakeholders; (4) the student’s current span of control in their
work environment; and (5) their career goals upon completion of the Ph.D. All
applicants must also submit a complete professional resume.
Graduate Assistantships: Students
admitted to the program may receive teaching assistantships. Prospective students
interested in receiving assistantships must have submitted all application materials
including an application form for an /assistantship by
March 1 of the year they intend to start the program. Applications for the assistantships
may be obtained from the Public Affairs Program Office. Offers
of teaching assistantships will be made by May 1 of the year of fall enrollment,
although additional appointments may be made as new
positions become available in subsequent months.
Ph.D.
in Public Affairs
The
Ph.D. requires a minimum of 42 hours of course work and twelve hours of
dissertation work beyond the master’s degree for a total of 90 graduate hours.
Students not holding a master’s degree in public affairs, public
administration, public policy or other related field may be expected to
complete additional course work. These courses will be determined by the
program director. Students must also complete a qualifying examination and
the doctoral dissertation.
Prerequisites
Prior to enrolling in core classes
in the Ph.D. program students must show evidence of completing graduate level
course work in general public management, basic statistics, financial
management and budgeting and economics or public finance. Students admitted to
the Ph.D. program without these requirements may be directed to complete
relevant courses in the Masters of Public Affairs program at UTD prior to
taking Ph.D. level courses. Students lacking a recent graduate level statistics
course may be required to complete EPPS 6313 Introduction to Quantitative
Methods.
Required Courses (42 hours)
The Program will consist of course
work in four substantive knowledge areas. These areas are the public affairs
core that includes topics of Governance: Leadership, Change and Conflict
Resolution. The three remaining substantive knowledge areas are Social Policy
and Development, Decision Analysis and. Organizational Management and Analysis
Dissertation Research
During the dissertation research
students must also be enrolled in PA 8V99 Dissertation.
Program Course Work
Cohort Mapping of Courses: 42 hours
of required coursework through 7 consecutive semesters
YEAR ONE (18 semester credit hours)
Fall
PA 7321 Ethics and Law in Public Affairs
PA 7325 Survey of Public Affairs
Spring
PA 6326 Decision Tools for Managers
PA 7330 Research Design in Public Affairs
Summer
PA 7375 Non-Profit Organizations: Theory and Practice
PA 6320 Organizational Theory
YEAR TWO (18 semester credit hours)
Fall
PA 7322 Negotiations for Effective Management
PA 7338 Seminar in Human Resources
Spring
PA 7305 Leadership of Public and Non-Profit Organizations
SOC 6312 Socio-Economic Theories or SOC 6340 Domestic Social Policy
Summer
PA 7311 Models and Tools of Change Management
EPPS
6352 Evaluation Research Methods in the Economic, Political and Policy Sciences
YEAR
THREE (18 semester credit hours)
Fall
PA 8340 Dissertation Seminar
Elective – (any 6000 or 7000 level PA or EPPS course)
Spring
PA 8V99 Dissertation (6 hours)
Summer
PA 8V99 Dissertation (6 hours)
Qualifying Examinations and Assessment
of Student Performance
All students must successfully
complete a qualifying examination after completion of their first two semesters
in the program in which they take PA 7325 Survey of Public Affairs and PA 7321 Ethics
and Law in Public Affairs in the first fall semester of enrollment, and PA 7330
Research Design in Public Affairs and PA 6326 Decision Tools for Managers in
the first spring semester of enrollment. The examinations/assessments will
cover the material in the four classes noted above. The
examinations/assessments will occur immediately after the first spring semester
of enrollment.
The examinations/assessments consist
of three components. These components are an assessment of the student’s
portfolio of work in the four courses noted above, a required GPA of 3.25 in
the four courses and a written examination covering the material in the four
courses. Successful completion of these components leads to continuation in the
program. Students who do not successfully complete the examination/assessment
process are dropped from the program.
Dissertation Seminar and Dissertation
Students typically enroll in PA 8340
Dissertation Seminar at the beginning of their third year in the program. This
is an individual study course, supervised by the student’s likely dissertation
chair, and normally would culminate in the completion of a dissertation
proposal. Assignment to a dissertation chair is based on a number of factors,
and students are encouraged to consult with the program director about the
selection of their chair and the rest of their dissertation committee.
Following the public defense of
their proposal, students begin work on their dissertation research, and enroll
in PA 8V99 Dissertation during the semesters following their successful
proposal defense. . Students enroll for up to 18 hours of PA 8V99, and
typically will complete their dissertation research and writing within a year
of the proposal defense. The final dissertation defense is conducted when the student’s
chair and committee agree that the dissertation is essentially completed.