2003-2005 - Special Collections - University of Baltimore

to, issues oforganizational dynamics, diagnosis, and prescription; program or policy planning,
development, implementation, and evaluation; and the legal, ethical, and political
implications of public management. The faculty is less concerned about the specific
methodology (qualitative, quantitative, or both) used to study the topic than it is about the
quality of analysis employed, the topic's relationship to substamively important research
questions in the field of public administration, and the project's potential or actual contribution
to improving public administration practice, understanding, and theory.
Students employed in public or not-for-profit agencies may focus their analyses on the
operations of their own organization. They may also, or conjointly, address research questions
dealing with other organizations affecting or affected by, their organization's programs
or policies. Alternatively, students not presently employed in either public or
not-for-profit agencies, those looking for a career change or expertise in another policy
area, or those merely interested in exploring research questions outside their organization's
responsibilities, are encouraged to pursue their interests wherever they may lead in public
administration.
The process ofcompleting the final project begins with the student developing a
research project ptospectus that is defended orally before a three-person faculty committee.
Led by a chair of the committee (typically, the student's major professor), and comprised
of faculty members selected for their expertise in the substantive and/or
methodological focus of the project, the committee will approve, approve with minor
modifications, or disapprove the project subject to significant revision. In particular cases,
membership on the committee may include a faculty member(s) from outside the
Division of Public Administration (including, more rarely, faculty members from other
institutions). However, the chair of the committee must be a Division member and
Division faculty must constitute a majority of the committee.
A student may nOt proceed with the final project until the prospectus has been
approved by the committee. Students are advised to begin thinking about the composition
of the project committee as early as possible. While students also should begin as early as
possible to think about possible topics for the final project and to discuss their ideas with
their major professor and potential faculty members, the formal prospectus defense occurs
only after all coursework is completed.
TRANSFER CREDITS
A maximum of 12 graduate credits may be applied toward the D.PA. degree for relevant
graduate courses completed at other regionally accredited colleges or universities with the
approval of the D .PA. program director. In no cases can transfer credits be used to reduce
degree requirements to fewer than 42 credits beyond the student's Master's degree(s).
SATISFACTORY ACADEMIC PROGRESS
Students who complete six credit hours coward the Doctorate of Public Administration
(core and/or elective courses) and who have a grade point average below 3.0 will be placed
on probation. Such students have six additional hours to recover at least a 3.0 grade point
average, or they will be academically dismissed from the program. Within the D .PA. program,
no course may be repeated for the purpose ofsubstituting for an earlier grade in the
same course. These provisions supercede the more general college provisions stated elsewhere
in this catalog.
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