Program Requirements
The Master of Public Administration (MPA) program requires 36 graduate credit hours, which includes 21 required hours that includes successful completion of the capstone seminar PADM 7373, and 15 approved elective hours. Students must maintain a 3.0 GPA for all courses approved for the MPA program. In accordance with the Graduate School policy, students who fall below a 3.0 GPA will have the next 12 credit hours to raise their GPA. Students admitted conditionally must maintain a 3.0 GPA in their first 12 graduate hours of core MPA courses.
Students without professional, managerial, or research experience in public or nonprofit administration are urged to apply for a graduate assistantship or take a three-hour internship (PADM 8301 or PADM 8302). Students considering pursuit of a doctoral degree are encouraged to take a six-hour thesis project (PADM 8000).
Courses in Public Administration
PADM 5341 Seminar in Comparative Public Administration (Elective)
Similarities, differences in bureaucratic structures, processes; analysis of organization, staffing, role of administrative systems in contrasting social, cultural contexts of the western, nonwestern worlds.
PADM 5353 Seminar in Public Budgeting (Elective)
Budgeting theory, practice; includes budgeting as allocations, process, games, rituals, history, politics; institutions, their roles in budgeting; current issues such as uncontrollability, balanced budgets, variance budgeting.
PADM 7330 Independent Study in Public Administration (Elective)
The independent study is given under the direction of a faculty member. Students take such courses to engage in specific topic of interest (which is usually not available through regular offerings), or participate in research projects for governments and non-profit agencies. A final written report is required. No more than six hours may count as electives toward degree.
PADM 7301 The Profession of Public Administration (Required)
Introduction to the discipline of public administration covers historical development of public administration, the relationship between politics and administration, conflicting public values, defining the public interest and the appropriate level of administrative discretion, as well as professionalism, the ASPA Code of Ethics, career planning for public service, and major sources of information for professional research. Students should enroll in The Profession of Public Administration course in the first semester they are in the MPA program.
PADM 7303 Public Organization Theory (Required)
Theory, research of complex organizations, their management, administration; relevance, application of the approaches in terms of design, structure, function, processes, their interdependencies.
PADM 7313 Human Resource Management in the Public Sector (Required)
Policies, practices, issues of managing the human resource function in public and nonprofit organizations.
PADM 7323 Public Financial Administration (Required)
Policies, concepts, practice, and analysis of public financial management issues and practices; introduction to the principles of public finance and the skills necessary for sound management of public sector financial resources. These principles include public budgeting, debt, investments, forecasting, tax administration, and intergovernmental fiscal transfers.
PADM 7324 Nonprofit Financial Management (Elective)
This course is designed to provide students with an understanding of funding mechanisms, accounting, and federal reporting requirements for nonprofit organizations. Topics focus on nonprofit accounting, financial resource acquisition, budgeting, financial management, control and transparency in nonprofit organizations.
PADM 7326 Public Organizational Networks for Nonprofits (Elective)
This course will discuss how nonprofit organizations can cultivate and strategically utilize relationships with government agencies, corporations, volunteer networks, and the general public. Both traditional outreach approaches and new formats, including electronic and social media, will be covered.
PADM 7329 Mediation Seminar
Examines current research and theories regarding conflict and their application to the practice of mediation in a variety of conflict situations. Teaches skills necessary to serve as an impartial third-party, such as listening, questioning, creative problem-solving, moving beyond impasse, and caucusing. Addresses various mediation styles and types of mediation. Cross-listed as LAW 6329.
PADM 7331 Problems in Public Administration (Elective)
Seminar on selected topics.
PADM 7333 Administrative Leadership and Public Management (Elective)
Theory, practice; distinctive challenges facing managers of public organizations; includes political context, effective leadership styles, building and maintaining motivated organizations, application of successful management techniques.
PADM 7334 Grant Writing and Fundraising (Elective)
Practical, hands-on study of the concepts, strategies, and techniques of resource development in public and not-for- profit organizations; emphasis on formulation of needs and capacity studies, organization of goals and objectives, budget preparation, volunteer coordination, and outcomes evaluation.
PADM 7335 Urban Management (Elective)
Administration of urban governments in context of intergovernmental relations, limited resources, political compromise, competing citizen demands; emphasis on balancing economy and efficiency with equity concerns, especially in key policy decisions relating to quality of urban life.
PADM 7336 Managing the Not-for-Profit Sector (Elective)
Management issues unique to nonprofit sector; hands-on use of real-world examples, problems through selected readings, special projects; attention to managing volunteers, fundraising.
PADM 7337 Public Organizational Change and Development (Elective)
Theories, concepts; emphasis on applications to practical administrative problems.
PADM 7338 Public Personnel Problems and Issues (Elective)
Topical problems, issues from operational, theoretical perspectives; emphasis on political, legal, economic, social, environmental forces that shape the human resource function in public agencies.
PADM 7339 State Administration and Reform (Elective)
Specialized needs of managing, reforming state government from comparative framework; emphasis on Arkansas.
PADM 7340 Ethics in Public Administration (Elective)
Public managers today face increasingly complex ethical dilemmas, often having to weigh personal and professional values against current public opinion and the law. This course examines some of these inherent conflicts through the use of case studies to help provide a framework and process for resolving ethical issues in the public sector.
PADM 7341 Managing Public Disputes (Elective)
Covers the knowledge and skills necessary for effective management of complex multi-party disputes about public issues such as land use and delivery of services. Examination of principles for managing conflict in the public sector; explores effective methods for analyzing and framing multi-party conflicts; and provides step-by-step procedures for reaching and implementing agreements.
PADM 7342 Public Revenue Management (Elective)
This course is a practical study of concepts and techniques used to manage public funds from a public manager’s perspective. Reading material, class discussions, and practical exercises will emphasize public funds accounting, internal revenue control, investing, and financial statements.
PADM 7343 Organizational Partnerships and Collaboration (Elective)
Increasingly, managers, employees, and volunteers from all walks of life, in the public, nonprofit, private sectors are called upon to work in collaborative environment. Reading material, class discussions, and practical exercises will focus on how public and nonprofit managers can best facilitate production and change in such an environment.
PADM 7345 Urban Management and Community Change (Elective)
Project-driven study of urban government leadership and management in the context of community systems and collaboration. Focus on issues of regional cooperation, planning and service delivery, urban and suburban governments, and neighborhood and community development.
PADM 7436 Current Issues in Public and Nonprofit Management (Elective)
This course covers both intellectual and practical issues facing public and nonprofit sector management over the past decade.
PADM 7353 Seminar in Intergovernmental Management (Elective)
Selected aspects, such as relations between levels of government, American federalism, federal fiscal relations, comparative administration, and emerging trends in intergovernmental relations.
PADM 7362 Public Policy Analysis I (Required)
This course is the first of a two course sequence in the use of data and evidence to support analysis of public problems, programs, and policies. Course topics include program definition and measurement; problem analysis; data visualization and presentation; stakeholder interviewing; sampling, survey, and evaluation research; experimental and quasi-experimental research design; multivariate statistical analysis; and public values and ethics in policy analysis. Students with credit for PADM 7315 cannot take this course for credit.
PADM 7363 Public Policy Analysis II(Required)
Prerequisite: PADM 7362. This course is the second of a two course sequence in the use of data and evidence to support analysis of public problems, programs, and policies. Course topics include program and policy evaluation; research design; experimental and quasi-experimental research design; multivariate statistical analysis; social welfare analysis; cost-benefit analysis; sampling, survey, and evaluation research; and public values and ethics in policy analysis. Course requirements include completion of a professional policy analysis paper.
PADM 7373 Seminar in Public Administration (Required)
Prerequisite: 30 hours approved coursework toward MPA degree and all core courses completed and a 3.0 GPA for these approved MPA courses. This capstone seminar provides students a service learning experience in public management. In an effort to combine students’ academic preparation with practical, applied experience, students are introduced to public management through a project sponsored by an area government or nonprofit agency. With this approach, we hope to expose students to the rigors of public management. Such a course experience permits students to develop decision-making skills for resolving problems, enhance group interaction abilities, and prepare a document for presentation to the government or nonprofit client. The goals of this course is to capitalize on students’ academic preparation by familiarizing them with public administration and the varying managerial strategies used in managing in the public sector on a ‘real time’ project, paying particular attention to the dynamics (personal, professional, organizational, social, and political) that affect management decisions in this sector.
PADM 7380 Public Program Evaluation (Elective)
Prerequisite: consent of instructor. Techniques for evaluating how well public programs work and what sort of research is most helpful to managers who want to improve them; formal research design, process evaluations, and impact evaluations; final project requires the evaluation of public or non-profit program.
PADM 7385 Seminar in Public Policy (Elective)
Public sector theories; techniques for analyzing policies; various substantive fields that may include health, energy, environment, other policy-making areas.
PADM 7393 Administrative Law (Elective)
Legal aspects of the administrative process, effect of legal principles, processes on administrative decision making; emphasis on limitation of administrative discretion, judicial review of administrative decisions.
PADM 8000 Thesis in Public Administration (Elective)
Prerequisites: 24 graduate hours; consent of coordinator. Preparation of a thesis demonstrating scholarship on some aspect of public administration, normally in-depth treatment of an applied management concern; must be approved by a thesis committee (chairperson and two faculty members selected by student with coordinator’s approval). Variable credit of one to six hours. Concurrent enrollment in final three to six hours with coordinator’s approval.
PADM 8301 Internship I in Public Administration (Optional)
Prerequisites: 30 graduate hours; consent of coordinator. (For students with no public service background) Practical, first- hand experience in government or nonprofit sector; usually requires four to six months full-time work in appropriate position, management paper reflecting professional and scholarly development.
PADM 8302 Internship II in Public Administration (Optional)
Prerequisites: 30 graduate hours; consent of coordinator. (For students with no public service background) Practical, first- hand experience in government or nonprofit sector; usually requires four to six months full-time work in appropriate position, management paper reflecting professional and scholarly development.
Core and required MPA classes have an “advisement flag” and a “course restriction flag” that requires the permission of the MPA Graduate Coordinator before a student can enroll in those classes. To receive permission to enroll in core and required classes, students need to email the MPA Coordinator with the Course number and title along with the student’s T-number to jgstevenson@ualr.edu.
