Academic Information
The joint Master of Public Administration degree is conferred by both The Graduate School of the College of Charleston and the University of South Carolina. We are fully accredited by the National Association of the Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA). Program governance and admissions decisions are made by all core faculty in the M.P.A. program.
The M.P.A. program at The Graduate School of the College of Charleston is designed to provide the following:
- A carefully structured core curriculum that focuses on the major components of modern public management.
- An elective curriculum that allows the student to develop a program of study suited to his/her career goals.
- Opportunities to apply administrative knowledge and skills and gain practical experience in a public or nonprofit agency.
- Opportunities for graduate assistants to learn through participation in various research and community service projects.
CORE CURRICULUM
The program’s core curriculum is designed to explore the essential elements of public management and public policy and to prepare students for increasingly complex public responsibilities in local and state government, nonprofit organizations, public/private partnerships and regional and federal agencies. The core curriculum emphasizes both the skills and knowledge required to effectively manage and develop organizational resources and to understand the larger constitutional and political setting in which policy is developed and administrative tasks are defined and assessed.
The core curriculum consists of 21 semester hours of coursework and a three-hour internship:
PUBA 600 Public Service Roles and Responsibilities
PUBA 601 Research and Quantitative Methods for Public Administration
PUBA 602 Public Policy
PUBA 603 Managing Public Organizations
PUBA 604 Managing Human Resources
PUBA 605 Managing Financial Resources
PUBA 701 Capstone Seminar
PUBA 777 Internship (The internship can be waived for students with extensive employment experience in public administration.)
SPECIALIZED STUDY
Elective courses are available in four areas of specialized study:
Nonprofit Administration
Arts Management
Municipal Government and Urban Planning
Environmental Policy and Administration
Opportunities to develop higher levels of skill and specialized study include a thesis project (PUBA 710), directed independent studies (PUBA 710A) and special topics seminars (PUBA 502). In addition, with the permission of the director, courses are often available through other graduate programs on campus and through the Medical University of South Carolina’s Health Administration Program and The Citadel’s Master of Business Administration Program. Credit earned at The Citadel or the Medical University of South Carolina is not considered transfer credit provided the student registers for the coursework using the cross-registration process. All transfer credits (no more than twelve [12] hours) completed at other institutions must be approved by the director.
Degree Requirements
The MPA degree requires a combination of core and elective classes intended to provide the student with a good founding in public administration theory as well as allow for more specialized knowledge in one of the four cognate areas. An internship is also required to reinforce these concepts in a 'real world' setting.
Degree Requirements
