Master of Public Policy and Administration, MPPA

Program of Study

The minimum requirement for the Master of Public Policy and Administration graduate degree is thirty-six hours. A minimum of one-half of the semester hours required for the master’s program, exclusive of thesis credits, must be in courses numbered at the 5000-level. For information on transferring graduate credit from an accredited university or college, see the section on transfer credit in the General Degree Requirements Section in the front of the catalog.

There are three components of the MPPA program:

Core Courses
Select seven courses from the following:21
Political Behavior
Environmental Law
Politics and Communication
Grand Strategy
Seminar in Public Administration
Urban Political Processes
Public Discourse and Foreign Policy
Public Policy and the Courts
Intelligence and Covert Action
Political Parties
Power, Morality, and International Relations
Diplomacy in Theory and Practice
Seminar in American Politics
Seminar in Public Law
Research Design and Research Methods
American Political Development
The American Founding
Comparative Constitutional Law
American Foreign Policy
Seminar in Presidential Rhetoric
Reading Course in Political Science (may be taken twice)
Elective Courses
Select nine semester hours from the following (including at least one 5000-level graduate course):9
Courses listed above.
Other Political Science courses.
Relevant graduate-level courses in cognate fields (e.g., Accounting, Economics, Environmental Studies, History, Management, Quantitative Business Analysis, Sociology).
Professional Internship/Research
After consultation with the Graduate Program Director, a student will choose one of the following options:6
Graduate Internship (involving a written report on at least three months of full-time supervised employment with a public service agency)
Professional Paper in Public Policy and Administration (and one additional 5000-level graduate elective)
Thesis (including an oral defense of the project)
Total Hours36