Graduate Catalog 2003-2004

The Department of Political Science offers programs leading to the degrees of Master of Public Administration and the dual Master of Arts in Political Science and German. The main goal of the master’s program in Public Administration and International Affairs is to provide professional education to students who wish to prepare themselves for administrative careers and leadership positions in government. In accordance with recognized professional standards, the program:

The dual Master of Arts in Political Science and German Program prepares a limited number of students for careers in some phase of international politics, education, or commerce in which fluency in the German language is essential. For German language requirements consult the graduate coordinator, Department of German, Russian, and East Asian Languages.

Prerequisites to Graduate Work

Applicants must possess a bachelor's degree from an accredited institution, have at least a 2.8 grade point average for conditional admission, and a 3.0 for regular admission, a 3.25 in the major, and have a major, minor, or satisfactory equivalent in political science or an appropriate field based on the student’s area of interest. In cases where an applicant is deficient in background, the appropriate graduate coordinator will recommend additional course work.

Admission Procedure

Applicants seeking admission to graduate programs in political science should follow the instructions in the "Graduate Admission" section of this catalog.

Degree Requirements
Master of Public Administration

The M.P.A. program consists of four educational components:

Candidates must complete a total of 42 semester hours of graduate credit, which includes 39 hours of course work. The remaining three hours include completing either a written thesis or an internship with an experiential paper and comprehensive exams. Mid- and in-career and international students have the opportunity to substitute course work for the internship component. Mid- and in-career and international students with prior administrative experience may forgo their formal internship and use such experience to draft an experiential paper if they select the comprehensive exam/experiential paper option.

The 21-hour core curriculum requirement is met by completing POLS 621, Administrative Theory and Behavior, and POLS 675, Research Methods. In addition to these two core classes, students are required to choose at least five of the following seven core courses:

In addition, all students must receive at least a “B” grade in all core classes before undertaking a thesis or comprehensive exam.

To develop an area of specialization, students select 12 hours of course work from various departments and colleges of the University under the direction of the graduate coordinator in one of the following ten areas: economic development; environmental management; financial administration; international and comparative administration; non-profit management; organizational development; personnel management and labor relations; public law and criminal justice administration; public policy analysis; and small local government management.

In addition to these program requirements, all graduates must meet the general degree requirements set by the Graduate College.

Master of Arts (Dual Degree)

Students pursuing a dual Masters of Arts in Political Science and German must complete a minimum 54 credit hours (27 in Political Science and 27 in German). For more information on the German component consult the graduate coordinator, Department of German, Russian, and East Asian Languages. The Political Science component consists of 18 hours in the core, six hours of electives and either three hours of thesis or three hours from an internship with an experiential paper and comprehensive exams.
The 18-hour core curriculum requirement is met by completing POLS 651, Seminar in Comparative Government; POLS 671, Seminar in International Relations; and POLS 675, Research Methods. In addition to these three core courses, students are required to choose at least three of the following seven core courses:

Graduate Courses
Please access graduate courses online at http://webapps.bgsu.edu/courses/search.php. Graduate courses offered by the Department of Political Science use the prefix: POLS.

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