Rubber City MPA program offers a flexible schedule
Govpro.com talked with Raymond W. Cox III, chair of the Department of Public Administration and Urban Studies at the University of Akron in Akron, Ohio. There are 120 students currently enrolled in the Akron U. MPA program.
Govpro: What are some characteristics of MPA degrees?
Raymond W. Cox: The traditional professional degree for most of those who are managers and supervisors in government or in the non-profit sector is much like the managers it prepares for public service. [The MPA degree] offers a diverse and broad curricula designed to prepare persons for managerial and leadership roles. What all the degrees share is a commitment to the values of public service. Whether one wishes to deliver that service through work in a non-profit agency, through research in a regional or national “think tank,” through a career in city management, or even through work in the legislative or judicial branches of governments, the common thread is the belief in the importance of providing a high standard of service and productivity for citizens and clients.
Govpro: Does the Akron U. MPA program serve students with varied backgrounds?
RC: An MPA must serve the educational needs of many different students. Unlike most graduate academic degrees, the MPA does not presume that a single undergraduate degree is the exclusive preparation for the masters’ degree. The curricula must accommodate both the research chemist who needs management education to become the director of the research office and the pre-professional “liberal arts”-educated young person. The University of Akron is fairly typical in that among any new cohort that begins each fall semester, upwards of a dozen different bachelor degrees (and even some masters’ degrees) are represented.
Govpro: What is the typical MPA student, and how do MPA programs serve them?
RC: For most MPA degrees, the prototypical student is someone with five to 10 years of work experience who is returning to school to enhance his/her knowledge of management to further their career goals. These [MPA programs] may be very large programs with some that recruit primarily part-time, mid-career students, having hundreds of students. The programs generally offer courses on a schedule that reflects the needs of the students — in the evening, on weekends or online. In contrast, there are a few programs that focus primarily or even exclusively on full-time students. These are most often smaller programs that “look” much like more traditional social science programs in that the students are have limited work experience and have recently completed a bachelor’s degree. They may also mimic the traditional social sciences in class scheduling as well, with classes during the day.
Govpro: Where does the Akron U. MPA program fit in?
RC: The University of Akron represents the best of these two worlds. Many of our full-time students are funded through contracts the department has developed with local governments and non-profit agencies. The students are “employees” of the university and thus eligible for an assistantship, but their work duties are outside the university in the “real world” of the public and non-profit sectors. These assistantships are like year-long (even two-year-long) internships. On the other hand, the major (about two-thirds) of the MPA students work full-time and attend classes on a part-time basis. Because of the predominance of part-time students, the class schedule is one that fits their needs — in the evening, on weekends, or online.
The single greatest advantage of this blending of students is in the classroom. There is no better learning environment than one in which the educational and professional background of the students is varied. Those who have worked for many years can “tutor” their young pre-professional classmates about the realities of work-life; yet it may be the younger students with their much more recent experience of the latest theories who help the older students envision how those theories might perform in practice.
