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School of Urban and Public Affairs

School of Urban and Public Affairs

Online Master of Public Administration

Accredited by NASPAA

Program Overview

Please see Program Overview.

Curriculum and Degree Requirements

Required Core Courses (30 credit hours)

  • URPA 5302 Foundations of Urban Research and Analysis
  • URPA 5309 Intergovernmental Relations
  • URPA 5320 Public Organization Theory
  • URPA 5322 Politics, Policy and Public Administration
  • URPA 5326 Public Budgeting
  • URPA 5332 Public Capital Budgeting
  • URPA 5345 Evaluation Research
  • URPA 5351 Public Human Resources
  • URPA 5358 Ethics in the Public Service
  • URPA 5399 Public Administration Capstone

Emphasis Area Required Courses (9 credit hours)

Students will design an emphasis to meet their personal and professional needs by choosing three courses from the list below.

  • PAD 5355 Comparative Public Administration
  • PAD 5361 Political Economy of Borders
  • POLS 5331 Seminar in International Organizations and Law
  • POLS 5344 Seminar in Border Theory
  • SUPA 5300 Foundations of Urban Planning and Sociology
  • SUPA 5301 Foundations of Urban Politics and Economics>
  • URPA 5304 Urban Politics
  • URPA 5310 Urban Policy and the Law
  • URPA 5312 Economic Policy

Internship (3 hours)

The MPA program does require an internship course to be completed (URPA 5360). This 3 hour course is designed for students to earn 3 credit hours for completing a one semester long internship leading to public sector professional experience.  There are no prerequisites that must be met before entering an internship or enrolling in URPA 5360, therefore students can immediately begin an internship within their first semester and thereafter.

Interns are placed in a variety of government and nonprofit organizations as well as private organizations engaged in public service activities. Example placements between Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 include:

  • Environmental Defense Fund
  • Barner Prox Law, PLLC
  • Tarrant  County-Emergency Management
  • Municipal Administrative Management
  • Clayton Yes!
  • City of Arlington

Applying for Internship Credit
Internships must be approved by the program. A student must submit an Internship Agreement Form describing the duties and hours with a signature from the sponsor before registration for internship credit. At the end of the internship, a student must complete and submit an Internship Report on their experiences and the sponsor must complete and submit an Internship Performance Evaluation verifying the internship requirements have been met. Both these forms must be submitted to the MPA Director by the end of the semester in order to receive credit and a grade.

Internship Waiver
URPA 5360 can be waived by newly admitted students and current students who have previously earned at least one year of professional public sector work experience. The procedure that must be followed by every student wishing to pursue the waiver is as follows: 1. Submit an Internship Waiver Form with signature and all necessary student information 2. Attach a professional resume, illustrating at least 1 year of professional experience of public sector work 3. Once approval or denial decision is made, the student will then be notified as to whether or not the URPA 5360 – Internship course will be waived.

Master of Public Administration

 

NASPAA Accredited