Master
of Public Affairs
http://www.utdallas.edu/epps/pa/mpa/
Faculty
Professors: L. Douglas Kiel, Robert W. Taylor
Associate Professors: Paul
Battaglio, Doug Goodman, Jeremy L. Hall
Assistant Professors: Young-Joo Lee, Meghna
Sabharwal
Clinical Professors: Donald
Arbuckle, Calvin Jamison, Robert Whelan
Clinical Associate Professor: Wendy
Hassett
Clinical Assistant Professor: Sarah Maxwell
Senior Lecturers: Teodoro Benavides
Mission
The Master of Public Affairs
program advances excellence in public service. The program accomplishes this
mission through three sets of activities aimed at preparing its students to
serve as capable and ethical stewards of the common good. It imparts essential
knowledge, competencies and perspectives to a diverse array of future and
current professionals in government and nonprofit organizations. It supports
the wider community though in-service professional and leadership training, and
through policy and management analysis services. And it produces new knowledge
through practice-centered research.
Objectives
The Master’s degree in Public
Affairs is a professional diploma that focuses on skills of management and
analysis that contribute to successful carrying out of administrative and
leadership responsibilities in government and nonprofit settings. The specific
outcome objectives for students who graduate with the MPA degree are:
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 have over 50 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. Many important data and reference
materials are also available online via the McDermott Library and School’s
memberships in numerous organizations.
Admission
Requirements
The University’s general admission requirements are
discussed here.
The
Master of Public Affairs program seeks to attract and admit highly motivated
students with strong records of academic performance from diverse cultural and
professional backgrounds. The program draws from mid-career professionals and
from the pool of recent college graduates alike to create a diverse and capable
pool of students with a desire to contribute to public service. The minimum
requirement for admission to the MPA program is a baccalaureate degree from an
accredited college or university. Students’ records are evaluated across
several performance dimensions in making admission decisions. In accord with
Chapter 51, of the Texas Education Code, decisions on admission to
degree-granting graduate programs at U. T. Dallas are based on holistic
considerations of all information contained in the application material
submitted, including academic, career and personal histories. Standardized test
scores and GPA levels cited in the catalog descriptions of some degree programs
are listed for advisory purposes only, to indicate the typical achievement
levels of students enrolled and succeeding in the various programs. No single
quantitative or qualitative measure or any specific combination thereof,
constitutes a definitive standard for admission. Rather, each application will
be considered individually and each applicant’s complete profile of strengths
and prospects for successful completion of the program will be evaluated.
In
general, students who have a 3.0 undergraduate grade point average (on a 4.0
scale) is preferred. Grade point average is only one of the factors
taken into account in determining admission. Students also submit transcripts,
three letters of recommendation and a one-page essay outlining the applicant’s
background, education, and professional objectives. Students who fail to meet
these standards may be admitted on a probationary basis until they demonstrate
their capabilities in graduate level course work.
To be
guaranteed consideration for admission, fall applications must be received by
August 1. Applications for spring admission must be received by December 1. Any
incomplete application received after these dates will not be considered for
admission during the designated semester. Students who do not meet this
deadline must reapply for the following semester.
Prerequisites
While
there are no specific prerequisites required for any MPA course, students who
lack background in particular areas may be advised or required to take
preparatory courses. In particular, students who lack background or experience
in mathematics and micro computing may be required to develop proficiency in
these areas before being admitted into certain courses. Students meet with the MPA Director to determine these requirements.
Degree Requirements
The University’s general degree requirements
are discussed here.
Students seeking a Master of Public Affairs
(MPA) degree must complete at least 42 semester credit hours of work in the
program. The program has three components: a 21 hour core, 15
hours of directed electives within a chosen specialization and the 3 hour
Capstone seminar (PA 6399 Public Affairs
CAPSTONE). For students without evidence
of at least 12 months full time managerial experience in the public or
nonprofit sectors, 3 hours of internship credit are also mandatory. Students
for whom the internship requirement is waived must complete an additional 3
hours of approved elective coursework.
Grade Point Requirements
Students must maintain at
least a 3.0 grade point average in the core courses and an overall grade point
average of 3.0 to graduate. If a student’s GPA does not meet these standards University policy concerning academic probation
and removal from the program are in effect.
Core Courses (21 hours)
All MPA students should
complete the core courses as soon as possible. A full-time student entering the
program will normally take three core courses and one additional course each
semester. The Capstone or
internship is usually undertaken when the student has completed most of the
other degree requirements.
Required core courses for the MPA (21 hours)
EPPS 7313 Descriptive
and Inferential Statistics for the Economic, Political and Policy Sciences
PA 6311 Public Management
PA 6313 Public
Policymaking and Institutions
PA 6320 Organizational Theory
PA 6321 Government
Financial Management and Budgeting
PA 6342 Local
Economic Development
PA 6345 Human
Resource Management
Elective Courses (15 hours)
Students not wishing to complete a professional
specialization must complete 15 hours of elective coursework
in addition to the core courses, capstone and internship. These courses will be determined in consultation with the MPA Director. Other courses, including
online offerings, may be authorized for all tracks at the discretion of the MPA
Director.
Professional Specialization Core Courses
Specialization tracks include: Public
Management, Local Government Management, Nonprofit Management, and Policy
Analysis.
Students who specialize in Public Management
take 15 hours from: PA 6300 Quality and Productivity Improvement in Government,
PA 6326 Decision Tools for Managers, PA 6328 Management Process and Analysis,
POEC 6336 Bureaucracy and Public Policy, PA 7322 Negotiation Strategies for
Effective Management, PA 6344 Local Government Management, or other appropriate
courses approved by the MPA Director.
Students who select the Local Government
Management Track take 15 hours from: PA 6344 Local Government Management, PA
6345 Human Resources Management, PA 6321 Government Financial Management and
Budgeting, PA 6342 Local Economic
Development, or other appropriate courses approved by the MPA Director.
Students who choose Policy Analysis complete 15
hours from: PA 7317 Economics for Public Policy, ECO 6361 Public Sector
Economics, EPPS 6316 Advanced Regression Analysis, EPPS 6352 Evaluation
Research Methods in the Economic, Political and Policy Sciences, EPPS 7304
Cost-Benefit Analysis, or other appropriate courses
approved by the MPA Director.
Students who wish to focus on
the Non-profit Management Track take 15 hours from: PA 6380 Non-profit
Organizations, PA 6381 Non-profit Management, PA 6374
Financial Management for Non-profit Organizations, EPPS 6352 Evaluation
Research Methods, or other appropriate courses approved by the MPA
Director.
Students who wish to focus on the Emergency Management Track
take the following courses consisting of 15 hours:
PA 6351: Introduction
to Homeland Security
PA 6353: Emergency
Management
PA 6471: Strategies
for Homeland Security
PA
6390: Administration and Leadership in
Justice Agencies
PA 7309: Protecting Critical Resources and
Infrastructure
Other courses may substitute
for those listed in any specialization with the approval of the Associate Dean
for Graduate Education or the MPA Director.
Capstone
Course (3 hours)
The capstone in public
affairs is the culminating experience for graduating MPA students. Students
integrate knowledge from across the MPA curriculum in a faculty-directed
semester-long applied research project (PA 6399 Public Affairs CAPSTONE).
This required 3 hour seminar should be taken in the semester in which the
student intends to graduate.
Internship
(3 hours)
3 hours of internship credit
(PA 8v97) are required for completion of the MPA. The internship involves work
in a professional capacity in an organization, under the joint supervision of
an experienced professional mentor at the internship site and the MPA Internship Coordinator. The
standard three hour internship requires approximately a 20-hour per week time
commitment to the work experience for a total of 300 internship contact hours
during the semester. The objective of the internship is to provide an
introduction to professional life and to establish sound approaches to the
practice of public affairs. Students
shall not take more than 6 hours of approved internship credit toward the
MPA. For students with evidence of
at least 12 months full time managerial experience in the public or nonprofit
sectors, 3 hours of internship credit may be waived at the discretion of the
MPA director. Students who wish to seek the internship waiver must submit a
formal written request to the MPA Director that includes a letter documenting
the duration of their experience and its relevance to public or nonprofit
management. This request must be approved no later than the student’s
penultimate semester in the program. Students for whom the internship requirement
is waived must complete an additional 3 hours of approved elective coursework
in lieu of the internship.