Degree Requirements
(for students entering the program in Summer 2005 and after)

Students must complete 52 credit hours (approximately 13 classes) to receive the MPA degree. This includes 8 required courses (32 hours total) and the required capstone course (4 hours). Students must take three courses (12 hours) in a selected concentration plus one additional course (4 hours) of the student's choosing selected in consultation with the student's advisor.

The required courses are listed below:

Core Courses (each course is 4 credit hours)

PA 400: Public Administration Theory
PA 407: Data Analysis for Public Administration
PA 410: Economics for Public Administration and Policy Decisions
PA 415: Organization Theory and Public Management
PA 502: Legal Context of Public Administration
PA 503: Public Personnel Management
PA 504: Budgeting for Public Management
PA 506: Policy Development and Analysis for Public Administrators

PA 590: Public Administration Capstone Description (PDF to come)
Integration of classroom learning with practical experience. Students will work in groups to solve real problems for public and non-profit organizations. Extensive collaboration required among group members outside of class time. Students should expect significant field work at their assigned organizations. Students are responsible to the course professor and to the project supervisor in their assigned organizations. Because the coursework is team-based, students are not allowed to drop this course once teams are created. Prerequisite: Consent of the instructor and enrollment in the MPA program. Course must be taken in the last two semesters in the MPA program; or consent of the instructor.

Concentrations

Each student is required to select one of the following four concentrations:

Public Management. Offers greater depth in broad management topics such as leadership, ethics, human resource management, decision analysis, and strategic planning, among others. Provides a sophisticated skill set for management that can be applied across a variety of agencies and tasks.

Financial Management. Provides specialized expertise in areas such as governmental accounting, infrastructure, and state and local finance, as well as critical skills for financial management such as strategic planning. Specialists in budgeting and financial management are in demand in a variety of public and nonprofit organizations.

Information Technology. Introduces technology issues in public management, including e-government, database management, and the use of technology in public and nonprofit organizations. UIC is one of a handful of PA programs to offer such a specialization, despite the increasingly information-driven environment of public and nonprofit administration.

Survey Methods. Provides a unique opportunity to learn survey research methodology and to engage in data collection that can inform organizational decisions and performance measurement. This is one of the few survey research specializations in the country associated with a graduate program in Public Administration.

Local Government Management. Takes advantage of local government and urban expertise within the program and across the university. Introduces students to special considerations in local government management, including metropolitan, intergovernmental, fiscal, and economic development issues.

MPA students are required to take three courses in the selected concentration plus one additional course of the student's choosing selected in consultation with the student's advisor. These concentrations allow students to focus their area of study in key areas of public administration and management, while taking advantage of the strengths of the PA Faculty and the MPA Program.

Students may create their own concentrations with permission from the MPA Committee. Students must submit their proposed concentration with justification to the MPA Committee for approval. Interested students should contact the PA Program for more information.

Optional Internship Project (4 credit hours)

PA 490: Field Experience in Public Administration Description (pdf to come)
Students work in an organization such as a governmental agency, community group, or non-profit organization. Students are required to submit written work and meet with professor on periodic basis to review work experience. Students who have no prior work experience in the public or non-profit sectors are strongly recommended to register for this course.

Students may substitute four internship course credits for the "at-large" elective course required of all MPA students. Students may take more than one Field Experience course. However, only four credits of PA 490 will be counted toward the MPA degree.