The Master of Public Administration is offered as a one-year, full-time, or three-year, part-time degree program. Thirty-three credit hours are required to fulfill requirements for the degree.

Nine-Week Intensive Workshop Program
Core Courses
Elective Courses
Capstone Exercise
Course list

Student Portfolio
An important aspect of the MPA program is to link the academic knowledge acquired at DSG with practical applications. Toward this objective, students are expected to participate in a portfolio of guest lectures, policy debates and colloquia.

Intensive Workshop Program
MPA 501     Ethics, Values and Leading Public Change (2 credit hour)
MPA 502     Professional Writing and Communication Skills (2 credit hours)
MPA 503     Research Methods for Public Administration I (2 credit hours)
MPA 504     Research Methods for Public Administration II (2 credit hours)

Core Courses
MPA 601     Seminar in Public Administration (3 credit hours)
MPA 602     Economic Foundation for Policy Analysis (3 credit hours)
MPA 603     Comparative Politics and International Relations in the Middle East (3 credit hours)
MPA 604     Budgeting and Financial Management in the Public Sector (3 credit hours)

Elective Courses
MPA 701     Strategic Planning and Performance Management (3 credit hours)
MPA 702     Organizational Behavior and Development (3 credit hours)
MPA 703     Human Resource Management in the Public and Nonprofit Sectors (3 credit hours)
MPA 704     Information Strategy and Knowledge Management in the Public Sector* (3 credit hours)
MPA 705     Leadership in Public Management (3)
MPA 706     Comparative Public Administration and Policy (3)
MPA 801     Government-Market-Society Relations in the Arab World (3 credit hours)
MPA 802     Socioeconomic Policy in the Arab World (3 credit hours)
MPA 803     Globalization, Governance and Public Administration (3 credit hours)
MPA 804     Public Policy in the Global Economy (3 credit hours)

Public Administration Capstone Exercise (PACE)
MPA 611     Capstone Exercise including Student Portfolio

Course Descriptions

The following paragraphs provide a brief description of courses offered in the MPA program.
MPA 501    Ethics, Values, and Leading Public Change
                     (2 credit hour)
This course examines the ethical and legal foundations of the public and nonprofit sectors. It provides conceptual tools to clarify moral dilemmas and analyzes individual decision making strategies and organizational programs from an ethical perspective. The course uses the concepts of ethics, diversity, and equity to explore the historical, political, economic, organizational, professional, and interpersonal aspects of public service, including the philosophical bases of public action, notions of responsibility of individuals to society, and alternative forms of citizen action, from participation to voluntary service. Special attention is given to the relationship between leadership in the public sector and ethics, and its implications for public policy change and reform. Students review case studies, engage in ethical analysis in the classroom, connect ethical judgment to specific public policies, and explore the challenges posed by interactions across national and cultural boundaries.

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MPA 502    Professional Writing and Communication Skills
                     (2 credit hours)
This intensive workshop introduces practical frameworks to help public managers think critically and logically about public management and policy problems and understand their environment (political, economic, legal, social, and technical), systematically using practical problem analysis steps and discussing examples of written management cases and policy documents. It also provides students with training in writing common policy documents, both in academic and professional venues. By the end of the workshop, participants will have a greater understanding of how to prepare high quality documents required of public professionals.

MPA 503    Research Methods for Public Administration I
                     (2 credit hours)
This course is designed to give students both an understanding of the research tools needed for public administrators but also an ability to practically utilize available research methods in their own research. Students learn how research methods help them answer public policy questions. Specifically, students get an overview of qualitative and quantitative methodologies. They learn how to design surveys, how to systematically conduct qualitative research such as structured interviewing, etc., how to operationalize variables, and how to formulate research questions. Students learn about measurement issues, how to increase research reliability and validity, and other issues regarding bias in results. In short, the course serves as an introduction to research methods needed by public administrators to evaluate problems of public policy and to prepare students adequately for the Capstone exercise and research projects in subsequent classes.

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MPA 504    Research Methods for Public Administration II
                     (2 credit hours)
This course provides an overview of statistical methods for public administrators and is a follow-up to MPA 503. The main focus of the course is on statistical methods and in particular in-class practice sessions. Course topics include program evaluation, descriptive statistics, hypothesis testing, processes for selecting statistical tests and assessment of statistical assumptions, bivariate statistics, regression analysis, and an overview of selected other statistical and quantitative methods applied to problems of public administration.
Students get hands-on experience through the use of Excel and SPSS and will come out having learned a basic statistical toolbox and how to implement this toolbox through the use of SPSS and sample datasets.

MPA 601   Seminar in Public Administration 
                     (3 credit hours)
Students in this course will learn about the developments that have taken place over time in the field of public administration, starting from the Spoils System, to the traditional school of public administration, to New Public Management and other contemporary developments such as Responsive Governance and New Public Service. The course also presents the main elements of public administration theory and practice, and surveys different administrative models. A quick review is undertaken of some of the basic technical, personal and interpersonal skills needed by public managers and some of the challenges they confront, whether in managing non-governmental organizations, confronting ethical dilemmas, or implementing reform.

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MPA 602    Economic Foundation for Policy Analysis
                     (3 credit hours)
This course applies the tools of economic analysis to help students understand and interpret the economic behavior of governments, consumers and producers. It studies sources of economic inefficiency, including market failures and limitations, as well as policy solutions. The goal of this course is to communicate the basic principles of microeconomics by emphasizing applications to the solution of public problems. The course addresses public versus private goods, the problem of externalities, reasons for government intervention and the pricing of public goods. It uses actual policy problems to demonstrate applications of theoretical frameworks to areas such as education, energy, environment, health, international trade, safety, taxation, transportation and welfare.

MPA 603    Comparative Politics and International Relations in the Middle East
                     (3 credit hours)
This course introduces students to the politics, political institutions, and political trends in the Middle East region, and explores the domestic, regional, and international factors shaping the foreign policies of states in the Middle East. The course combines the study of domestic politics—including the politics of state building and nationalism, the rise and decline of oil wealth, the challenges of political culture, civil society, and political development—with the study of the evolution of regional geopolitics as shaped by pan-Arabism, US foreign policy, the Arab-Israeli conflict and recent regional and international developments, both political and economic.

MPA 604    Budgeting and Financial Management in the Public Sector
                     (3 credit hours)
This course is a graduate-level introduction to the fundamental skills of public finance and budgeting, focusing on the fiscal role of government in the modern mixed market economy. It examines the revenue and expenditure structure of the public sector, including revenue policy, expenditure policy, and budget structure and administration in developing and recently developed countries. It covers basic principles and concepts, central and local budget processes, budget preparation and development, capital budgets, revenue policy and administration, fiscal federalism, public debt, and capital markets and institutions. The course focuses on understanding and analyzing the broader process of economic and fiscal reform, determining the appropriate division of revenue and spending responsibilities among levels of government, evaluating both centralized and decentralized government revenue-raising mechanisms, and assessing prospects and options for fiscal reform and public/private production. Attention is also given to political, historical, institutional and cultural dynamics that may influence policy design, management, and change with special focus on the context of the Arab region.

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MPA 611    Capstone Exercise (including) Student Portfolio
                     (4 credit hours)
The Capstone Exercise is designed to enable MPA students to integrate and apply the knowledge and skills they have acquired through their study. During this project, students analyze a real organizational/administrative or public policy problem in the form of empirical research. They are expected to conduct the research in an organization located in the region, provide findings and make recommendations for improvements related to the project.

MPA 701    Strategic Planning and Performance Management
                     (3 credit hours; Prerequisite: MPA 601)
The course presents the rationale for strategic planning and evaluation, as well as techniques and processes to achieve innovation and performance in the public sector. The course includes material on strategic analysis, performance measurement and management, organizational structure and networks, operations and process management, and organizational learning and change. This includes structured data collection and analysis techniques to determine precisely what an agency aims at and what it actually accomplishes through its actions.

MPA 702    Organizational Behavior and Development
                     (3 credit hours; Prerequisite: MPA 601)
This course focuses on behavior within the context of public organizations, and on strategies and methods intended to change attitudes, values, and structures. It examines organizational behavior as influenced by individual differences, group processes and interactions, organizational processes, and the nature of technological and environmental change as they affect the management decisions. The course emphasizes skills and abilities which are essential for effective management and for organizational frameworks conducive to better performance. Topics include motivation, productivity, diversity, group development, team building, conflict theory, decision making and communication processes, power and politics, leadership, job design, organizational culture, and organizational learning.

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MPA 703    Human Resource Management in the Public and Nonprofit Sectors
                     (3 credit hours; Prerequisite: MPA 601)
This course reviews theories and principles of managing people in public and nonprofit organizations. Emphasis is given to the challenges facing the public sector in attracting and developing human assets in an environment of conflicting goals, stakeholder obligations and a highly aware public. Specific topics include the evolution of the modern public service, legal and political influences impacting human resource development and management, functions of human resource management, employment discrimination, labor management relations, professionalism and ethics, and civil service reform. The course also covers principles and problems of recruitment; examination procedures; rating, classification, and job assignment; reward systems; promotion; employee motivation, and performance enhancement programs.

MPA 704    Information Strategy and Knowledge Management in the Public Sector
                     (3 credit hours; Prerequisite: MPA 601)
The purpose of this course is to acquaint students with the organizational and management issues surrounding the emergence of information and knowledge as key factors in the performance and development of organizations. The course gives students an in-depth understanding of information resources and their implications for the public and nonprofit sectors. Advancements in information technology, which are making e-government a reality and are causing administrators to rethink their approach to service delivery, are explored as new ways of structuring organizations for greater productivity. The course also covers the fundamental concepts and applications of knowledge and its creation, acquisition, representation, dissemination, use and re-use, and management. Topics may include organizational learning, learning communities, electronic performance support systems, core competencies, activity theory, socio-technical design, human systems, and organizational culture impacts of information and knowledge management.

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MPA 705    Leadership in Public Management
                     (3 credit hours; Prerequisite: MPA 601)
This course will deal with leadership, broadly defined, primarily within the context of the public sector. It will be a combination of learning about leadership through the review of literature during class discussion and participation in a wide variety of “hands-on” exercises and case study analyses. The literature and exercises are chosen to address leadership theory and place it in a real-world context where students will be able to apply various skills and techniques deemed to be essential for successful leadership in the organizational and broader societal setting.

MPA 706    Comparative Public Administration and Policy
                     (3 credit hours; Prerequisite: MPA 601)
The course is designed as a general survey of the research literature on comparative public administration and policy. As such, this course explains how administrative systems, policy making and implementation in other nations differ from our own while challenging students to think about factors accounting for these differences. The course provides a comprehensive analysis of the influences of different political, social, and economic factors on public administration and policy outcomes. Students will thereby develop the ability to analyze and reflect on the management of the public sector and policy making in the Middle East region.

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MPA 801    Government-Market-Society Relations in the Arab World
                     (3 credit hours; Prerequisite: MPA 602)
This course explores the major social science paradigms used in analyzing relations between government, the economy, and society. It focuses on the important role that government policies play in economic and social development, including monetary, fiscal, investment and natural resource-related policies, as well as social welfare and labor policies. The course also reviews the legislation and institutions that are required to formulate and implement effective policies. It examines the effects of regulatory and management institutions on policy design and implementation. The effects of the market and the broader economy on the conduct of public policy and on society will also be addressed. The course concludes with a critical examination of the increasing importance and contentiousness of global trade policy and global institutions, and their impact on the Middle East region as a whole, and individual states in particular.

MPA 802    Socioeconomic Policy in the Arab World
                     (3 credit hours; Prerequisite: MPA 602)
This course examines socioeconomic policies in the Middle East in the post-World War II period. It is designed to expose students to past experience and current thinking on social and economic challenges facing the region. Emphasis will be placed on developing an understanding of the origins and orientation of development policies in the region, while providing a critical examination of existing and alternative policy formulations. To this end, readings, lectures and assignments will focus on the modalities of state intervention; economic growth and structural transformation; fertility and population growth; employment and poverty alleviation; food, health and educational subsidies; deregulation and financial development; problems of governance and institutional development; regional trade integration and globalization; the political economy of policy reform; and, alternative development paths in the twenty-first century.

MPA 803    Globalization, Governance and Public Administration
                     (3 credit hours; Prerequisite: MPA 602)
An understanding of globalization, its emerging governance structures and modalities, and the differing pressures these factors exert on public administration and policy in developing and developed nations is a key component in the core competencies of the professional public administrator at all levels—local, national, and international. This course aims to critically examine the complexity, importance, and impact of globalization and internationalization processes in public management policy, as well as the difficulties (and opportunities) associated with these processes, and their relevance to countries of the region. It provides a broad comparative survey of issues in international public policy and development, and of management instruments and networks that public officials use towards shaping that policy, including the use of emerging techniques and innovations in management to address the problems and issues faced under the changing environment of the public sector.

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MPA 804    Public Policy in the Global Economy
                     (3 credit hours; Prerequisite: MPA 602)
This course provides an analytical framework required for understanding the way changing macroeconomic conditions in the world economy affect economic growth, inflation, interest rate behavior, exchange rate determination, global competitiveness, unemployment, and the trade account. It provides skills which enable students to assess critically how developments in the world economy affect particular policy environments. The first part of this course looks at both the theory and practice of international trade. Topics include an analysis of the gains from free trade and the effects of barriers to trade such as tariffs, subsidies, quotas, and voluntary export restraints. Other topics of discussion include regional trade arrangements, the World Trade Organization, and issues of specific concern to emerging market economies. The second part of the course focuses on international monetary theory and practice, and macroeconomic policy making in an open economy. Topics include balance of payments analysis, the foreign exchange market, theories of foreign exchange rate determination, emerging market currency crises, monetary unions, and the role of international organizations in policy making in the Arab world.

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