The MSPA program is a two-year professional degree program that prepares students for
careers in public service and enhances the skills of those already employed in the
public sector. Graduates of this highly competitive program include mayors, city
managers, and state agency managers and directors, as well as a host of elected
officials. The curriculum is a carefully planned sequence of evening courses that
provides academic instruction in American culture, politics, economics, management,
budgeting, statistics and public finance.
Based in the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies and drawing on
faculty from throughout the university, the M.S. in Public Affairs program offers a
choice of two tracks: Public Affairs and
International Relations.
The MSPA program concentrates on four broad goal for its graduates:
- an understanding of the cultural, political and economic factors that influence
the development and implementation of public policy initiatives, strategies and
programs at the national, state and local levels;
- a firm knowledge of the range of methodologies appropriate to policy analysis,
including evaluation models, survey research and design, and the quantitative and
qualitative measure for collecting, analyzing and interpreting data related to
public policy issues;
- a solid grounding in the skills required for planning, implementing and
controlling public sector programs and policies, with special emphasis on the
nature of human resources and public budgeting issues associated with public
sector organizations and agencies;
- the capacity to exercise the skills needed to build support for policy
initiatives essential to the success of their organizations or agencies;
The program includes intensive analyses of current policy issues and concentrates on
topics relating to metropolitan Boston, Massachusetts and New England. Students
admitted to the program are usually currently employed and have several years'
experience in the public, private or not-for-profit sectors; although students who
have just completed and undergraduate degree are also considered. Those coming from
the private sector usually hold or aspire to positions of authority in their
organization's community relations, governmental affairs or long-range strategic
planning divisions. Since most students are employed full time, the program operates
on an evening and weekend schedule. It draws on regular teaching faculty from
throughout the university.
MSPA students work closely with McCormack Graduate School staff and senior fellows
and benefit from their contacts with these professionals whose expertise ranges over
may areas: criminal justice, economics, government healthcare, higher education
policy, political behavior, polling, public finance, public management, public
policy analysis and urban affairs. Students can also get involved with the
Institute-sponsored New England Journal of Public Policy, a semi-annual publication
designed for academics, practitioners and policy analysts.
Career Goals of Our Graduates
The MSPA program recruits, primarily, successful and effective practitioners in
Massachusetts state and local government. They may be appointed or elected, working
in executive departments, offices and agencies, or as legislative staff members. Some
program students are also journalists or business people who need or want to
understand how the public sector works, leaders in the non-profit sector or people
about to enter the public sector. Fundamentally, though, the program is designed for
those women and men who are working in government in the Commonwealth and wish to
continue doing that work while enhancing their ability to do so.
The program's interest in these particular practitioners has its source, first of
all, in the growing public demand that government increase its effectiveness and
professionalism. Citizens want government to work, and work well. The current broad
public interest in a wide variety of approaches testifies to the popular sense that,
while government is necessary, it is not very well run and must be improved.
Degree Requirements and Curriculum
To complete the program, students earn thirty-six graduate credits comprising:
- eight three-credit courses
- six one-credit weekend intensive modules (two per semester for four semesters)
- a final six-credit case study seminar
The curriculum leading to the M.S. in Public Affairs is highly structured. Students
proceed through the program as a group, taking courses in a prescribed sequence. In
order to accommodate students who have already had graduate training in one or more
of these areas, the program permits the transfer of up to two equivalent courses.
In addition, students may take one or two independent study in place of required
courses that have been completed elsewhere.
The program offers courses grouped in the following five areas:
- The New England political and economic environments
- History, culture, and policy in New England
- Public management, organizational behavior, public budgeting and financial
management, and program evaluation
- Analytical skills for policy makers
- Issue and Policy analysis
|
