Public Administration, MPA

Master of Public Administration

Graduate Program Coordinator:
Dr. David Abrahams

The Department of Management, Marketing and Public Administration is committed to preparing Master of Public Administration (MPA) graduate students to enter the public and nonprofit sectors in leadership and management positions. The program is designed to produce public administrators who are highly skilled as policy analysts, managers, and human resources professionals. Professors work with students to develop and improve their skills in research, analysis, presenting and preparation of written reports. Students are taught to follow the requirements that are set forth by reputable authors of handbooks for writing theses and various other empirically based intellectual documents (APA Manual, Kate L. Turabian, and others). Still, there are some students who attend this program to sharpen their skills and improve their performance as a part of their ongoing career development.

The MPA degree program addresses a number of statewide educational goals articulated in “Educating for the 21^st Century: The Maryland Plan for Postsecondary Education.” This is an evening school program that has students in attendance from all levels of the public sector.

We attribute our ever increasing enrollment to the information revolution and the explosion of knowledge technology. This, of course, has created a rapidly changing workforce that requires frequent changes in occupations, skills, training and education. The U.S. Department of Labor predicts that most professionals will change careers five or more times during their working years. Evidence clearly indicates that in the State of Maryland, we can anticipate a larger number of adult students seeking advanced degrees and various types of certifications offered in evening school programs at institutions of higher education.

Even though the MPA degree program targets adult professionals, it is open to all individuals who meet the requirements for admittance.

Admission to the Program

Applicants who wish to pursue the MPA degree will submit their undergraduate transcripts to the Office of the Graduate Registrar showing that they received a Bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution. All applicants are required to have a grade point average of 2.5 or better. Students in the MPA program must meet all of the prerequisite requirements for admission as stated below.

• Students who transfer to the MPA program from other accredited graduate programs may be allowed to transfer no more than six credits provided those credits meet the requirements for course work leading to the MPA degree.
• The minimum prerequisites for students entering the program shall include undergraduate course work in the following:
  1. A course in U.S. Government or Political Science.
  2. Principles of Micro and Macro Economics or ECON 498 (combined course work in Micro/Macro Economics).
  3. Course in Computer Science or evidence of computer literacy.
  4. Course in Introduction to Statistics.
  5. Course in College Algebra.
• Based upon the judgment of the Chair in consultation with the public administration program coordinator, applicants holding certain undergraduate degrees may require additional prerequisite course work in order to be admitted to the Master of Public Administration degree program.

Program Requirements

Area of Concentration

Degree Completion Requirements

All degree requirements must be completed within a maximum of seven consecutive years. Students may be subject to dismissal from the MPA program under the following conditions:

• If a student receives three “C” grades during their matriculation in the MPA program.
• If a student receives an “F” or “FW” grade during their matriculation in the MPA program.
• Student may not repeat a graduate course more than one time without special permission.
• Students will be allowed no more than three attempts to pass the comprehensive examination.

The comprehensive examination questions will be based upon topics from the following three academic domains:

1. Public Policy Analysis
2. Qualitative Research
3. Organization Behavior

Additional Information

Students who are currently enrolled in Business Information Systems are eligible to apply to the MPA Program. In addition, students from across the social science disciplines are eligible to apply to the MPA program. Course requirements leading to the MPA degree will depend upon the following:

1. The desired field of interest (Public Policy and Management, Human Resource Management or General Concentration);
2. The courses completed previously, and
3. The applicant’s professional work experience in the intended field of study.