Master of Public Administration Requirements (2001 to 2007)
The Master of Public Administration program offered by the School of Public Affairs and Administration at Western Michigan University consists of an 18-credit-hour core, an 18-credit-hour concentration, and PADM 6800: Project Paper Seminar. If you are admitted as pre-career, you are also required to complete a three-credit-hour internship.
Core program
The core program addresses the body of knowledge and skills common to the administration of health care, nonprofit and public entities. Courses that fulfill each component of the core are listed below. Course descriptions can be accessed by going to the WMU catalogs and selecting the appropriate year.
Foundations of public administration
- PADM 6000: Foundations of Public Administration (three credit hours)
Political environment
- PADM 6020: Political Environment of Public Administration (three credit hours)
Economic analysis
- PADM 6040: Political Economy (three credit hours)
- ECON 6010: Applied Economics for Management (three credit hours)
Statistics and quantitative methods
- PADM 6070: Data Analysis for Administrators (three credit hours)
Organization behavior and change
- PADM 6080: Organization Theory and Behavior (three credit hours)
- MGMT 6500: Managing Change (three credit hours)
- MGMT 6550: Organization Theory (three credit hours)
- PSCI 5340: Administrative Theory (three credit hours)
- SOC 6730: Formal Organization (three credit hours)
Applied research methods
- PADM 6060: Applied Research Methods (three credit hours)
PADM 6000: The Foundations of Public Administration should be taken first, and PADM 6060: Applied Research Methods should be taken as the last core course. All other courses will be determined by an advisor upon beginning the program.