MPA Curriculum
The Master of Public Administration program at Georgia Southern University is a 36 credit hour program designed to provide both theoretical and practical experience in the area of public and non-profit administration. The curriculum consists of core and elective courses as well as an internship experience with accompanying capstone paper.
Core Courses six required courses (18 semester hours)
PBAD 7631 Foundations of Public Administration
PBAD 7430 Personnel Management or PBAD 7431 Organizational Behavior
PBAD 7230 Budgeting in the Public Sector)
PBAD 7133 Ethics in Government or PBAD 7130 Public Law
PBAD 7330 Intergovernmental Relations
PBAD 7530 Research Methods or PBAD 7531 Program Evaluation
Elective Courses select four courses (12 semester hours)
PBAD 7331 Managing Small Cities*
PBAD 7332 State Government*
PBAD 7334 Rural Development Administration*
PBAD 7335 Urban Management*
PBAD 7338 Managing Economic Development
PBAD 7337 Environmental Management and Policy
PBAD 7532 Public Policy
PBAD 7533 Public Sector Planning
PBAD 7636 Administration of Justice
PBAD 7637 Social Welfare Management
Core options not utilized above also may serve as electives.
* One of these courses may be substituted for Intergovernmental Relations.
Courses from other graduate programs -- such as Master of Business Administration and Master of Public Health -- may also be used to meet elective requirements with approval from both departments.
Internship (3 credit hours) and Capstone Paper (2 credit hours)
The internship must be fulltime, last at least four months, and be approved by the Program Director. Textbook concepts are used to analyze the internship experience and to craft the capstone paper. Both internship and capstone registrations require the Program Directors approval. The capstone paper is defended in an oral examination before the faculty, and a successful defense is the final requirement for the MPA degree.
Course Descriptions
PBAD 7020 Selected Skills in Public Management: this course involves the intensive development of specific skills needed by public managers not covered by other courses (proposed curriculum revisions would phase out this course and incorporate the material into the substantive courses).
PBAD 7030 Selected Topics in Public Management: this is an intensive examination of specific topics within the framework of public management that are not covered in other courses. Recent examples of such courses include Non-Profits, Leadership, and Theories of Public Administration. Many of the courses are test-marketed, as it were, for possible inclusion as regularly offered electives.
PBAD 7130 Ethics in Government: this course focuses on experiences, approaches, and strategies for confronting and solving problems. Emphasis is placed on the accountability and responsibility of public officials for appropriate behavior and ethical decision-making.
PBAD 7133- Public Law and Administration: examines the legal framework in which public managers must operate in the 21st century. Particular attention is directed to understanding the implications of constitutional law on administrative behavior and decisions and on administrative laws designed to insure due process and equal protection of the law. The course examines the interrelationship of law and ethics for public managers.
PBAD 7220 - Computer Applications for Public Managers: this course fulfills the information management and technology applications components. The course covers data management and data analysis (this elective class will either be eliminated and folded into the Research Methods and Public Program Evaluation courses or changed to three credits).
PBAD 7221 - Geographic Information Systems: examines decision-making and problem-solving in the context of geographic information systems. Using geographic tools as a foundation, it examines policy evaluation
PBAD 7230 Public Budgeting: this course examines the politics and techniques used in formulating and implementing budgets by local, state, and federal governments.
PBAD 7232 Public Sector Financial Management: this course is an exploration of the management of revenue-raising and expenditure activities. Topics include grants and contracts, recording outlays, expenditure monitoring, procurement and purchasing policies, and financial audits of public agencies.
PBAD 7320 Community Organization and Development: this course examines the history and theory behind the practice of community organizing and the concept of community development in the United States. Additional focus on specific problems faced in local communities is included as well as consideration of specific organizing and development strategies and techniques to address those problems.
PBAD 7321 - Diversity Issues in Public Management: this course specifically deals with human resources issues. It examines the ways that human differences affect the work of public managers with respect to their colleagues, employees, supervisors, and the public.
PBAD 7330 - Intergovernmental Relations: explores the interaction between the federal, state, and local levels of government in the United States. Special attention is given to the constitutional and fiscal relationships between these levels of government and the historical evolution of the nature of these relationships.
PBAD 7331 Managing Small Cities: this course is a systematic study of the political and administrative processes of governing cities, counties, and other units of local government in the United States. Special attention is given to the role of effective governance by elected officials and the professional responsibilities of city managers who often execute the decisions of elected officials.
PBAD 7332 State Government: a systematic study of the growing role of the states in the development and administrative of domestic social policy in the United States. Special attention is directed to the capacity building in state government and devolution of power to the states. The course relies on an in-depth analysis of state policy making in education, crime control, and economic development.
PBAD 7334 Rural Development Management: examines the administrative problems and salient public policy issues that persist in rural settings. Rural development theories and practices are analyzed to enhance the understanding of rural development problems, types of rural communities, and the role of administrators in formulating, implementing, and evaluating policy in rural settings.
PBAD 7335 Urban Management: an examination of the problems confronting public managers in large cities and the structure and responsibilities of urban governments in the United States. Specific policy areas such as transportation, housing, social welfare, public health, and public safety will be studied in an urban context with a focus on the approaches managers have taken to address such problems.
PBAD 7336 Comparative Public Management: this course examines public administration structures and processes in different parts of the world cognizant of cultural and contextual variables and how they affect the administrative and budgeting processes.
PBAD 7337 Environmental Management and Policy: an overview of environmental and natural resource management in the United States. Particular attention is paid to issues of regional importance, including water quality and availability, regulation and monitoring compliance, sustainable growth, and management within overlapping jurisdictions.
PBAD 7338 Managing Economic Development: examines the strategies, tools, and techniques used by local, state, and national governments to generate economic growth and revitalize economically depressed areas. Special attention is directed to the role played by public managers in effectively managing public/private partnerships aimed at improving the economic well being of neighborhoods and individuals.
PBAD 7430 - Public Personnel Management: this course involves the functions of public personnel management and the challenges it faces in government and society.
PBAD 7431 - Organizational Behavior in the Public Sector: the study of human behavior in organizations with special attention to the unique characteristics of the interface between behavior and organizational structures in the public sector.
PBAD 7530 - Research Methods for Government is designed to teach information management. This course teaches computer-assisted data analysis of public policy. The course addresses the mechanics and theories of social science data analysis. The course uses data and examples from the field of public administration.
PBAD 7531 - Public Program Evaluation examines the implementation and impact of public policy with special attention to policy analysis. The course addresses policy and program performance based monitoring systems and attendant management information systems.
PBAD 7532 Public Policy: the systematic study of how public policy is developed, formulated, implemented, and evaluated. The course focuses on the skill of public analysis as well as the social problems and cultural interpretations that influence the construction of public policy. The course relies on examples from domestic policy in the United States and abroad.
PBAD 7533 Public Sector Planning: examines the scope, theories, resources, and politics of urban, regional, state, and national planning.
PBAD 7620 - Capstone Seminar in Public Management: the final project involves the evaluation of a program. It is concerned with all parts of the policy process from the formulation of policy, its implementation, and an evaluation of its workings. The final project asks students to examine decision-making in the organization or agency and to address problem-solving issues, consider questions of human resources, budget and finance, and information management.
PBAD 7631 - Foundations of Public Administration: this is the overview course of the waterfront of public administration. It deals with all of the major issues that animate public administration as a discipline and a profession. It deals with all the components of management: human resources, organizational behavior, budgeting and finance, and information management and technology applications.
PBAD 7633 Correctional Management: examines the correctional system, the correctional process, and the management of penal institutions. The course provides an in-depth examination of prison management and the interface of political, social, and legal institutions with the court and the community. The course examines the management of correctional programs and their special challenges.
PBAD 7634 Juvenile Justice Management: examines the context of the administration of a juvenile justice system through history, philosophy, and law. Encompasses the systematic processing of juveniles through diversion programs to incarceration.
PBAD 7635 Police Organization and Management: examines the managerial and leadership tasks of the police agencys chief executive officers. Particular emphasis is given to assessment and creation of policies, procedures, and budgets. Other topics include organizational structure and design, planning decision-making, communication and change.
PBAD 7636 Administration of Justice: examines the legal structure that supports the criminal justice system. The course examines the work of the legal system within the political structure. Current and future problems of law enforcement are considered including judicial process, community relations, and civil liberties.
PBAD 7637 Social Welfare Management: examines the issues involved in administering social welfare programs at the local, state, and national levels of government. Particular attention is paid to the problems faced by social welfare service delivery organizations and the question of welfare reform strategy in the United States.