Dec 04, 2024  
2023-2024 Graduate Catalog 
    
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2023-2024 Graduate Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Public Management Certificate

Program Coordinator:

Dr. David Abrahams

 

Qualified applicants may pursue the Certificate in Public Management which is a fifteen (15) credit program. The certificate program is well suited to those individuals who already hold degrees in non-related fields of study but serve as program  executive/managers in a publicly funded or nonprofit organization with five or more years of experience. Those who are program executive/managers and are degreed in the social sciences meet the requirements for this program as well.

All other applicants who are eligible for the Certificate in Public Management shall have been employed as a program executive/program manager of a publicly funded or non-profit program for five years or more years. This category of applicant will be accepted in the program with or without the college degree provided he/she has managed human and financial resources with responsibility for supervising and/or directing five or more employees.

Advisors may also tailor a certificate program to the specific needs of an applicant who meets the above requirements.

Applicants interested in pursuing a Certificate in Management will submit evidence showing that they meet the certificate requirements, as stated above.

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 21st 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

Core Courses (18 credit hours)