This paper reported the findings from 18 qualitative interviews of students across two sections of an elective, standalone ethics course in a Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs and Administration (NASPAA) accredited Master's of Public Administration (MPA) program at a northeast university. The findings suggested that a survey of…

A purpose of the Master of Public Administration (MPA) program is to translate theory into practical concepts to prepare leaders of the public and nonprofit sectors. The practice continues to employ entrepreneurial activities throughout the world. The academy has researched, written, and published extensively about entrepreneurship to build…

Aspects of public service often involve tasks sometimes considered taboo, including working with grit, grime, blood, guts, grease, and stigmatized populations. Yet scholarship in our field directly incorporating dirty work remains limited yet growing. Importantly, if MPA students are not trained in how to work with and manage public sector…

At the lead author's home institution--Copenhagen Business School (CBS)--the combination of theory and practice is seen as very important in teaching. Research-based teaching is the slogan. In this respect, CBS has the same ambition as other universities. But it seems as if CBS has an advantage at the master's level, because students come with a…

A current challenge to public managers is the lack of a well-defined role. How can masters programmes prepare managers to live up to an undefined function? In this paper we argue that the lack of role description enhances the need for reflexivity and we show how it is done at Master in Educational Management (MEM). MEM provides the participating…

The purpose of this research is to assess the process of establishing, implementing, and evaluating an international service-learning (ISL) partnership between an American university and a foreign government. The partnership is between North Carolina Central University and the Civil Service Agency of Liberia. In order to facilitate an in-depth…

An approach to designing a competency-based master's program in public administration that integrates political science, management, and value-based approaches into a holistic package is described. Pedagogically the approach seeks to balance conceptual knowledge with skill acquisition for specific situations, providing a curriculum more relevant…