Each year, over 6,000 students complete Master of Public Administration (MPA) degrees in over 200 university accredited programs. Many of these graduates commit to a career in the public service in one of thousands of public sector organizations at all levels of government or in the non-profit sector. Are students qualified to work successfully with multiple <i>"publics"</i> and to work towards achieving the goals of social equity? The core curricula of 123 National Association of School's of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA) accredited MPA programs were examined and the analysis focused on the following question: To what extent do NASPAA accredited programs provide cultural competency training to MPA students through their curricula? This dissertation assesses the current state of the field and recommends cultural competency standards to be adopted by public administration programs. / Ph. D.

Au sortir de l'époque maoïste, le Parti communiste chinois a cherché à s’appuyer sur une bureaucratie plus compétente pour réussir le développement économique dans un contexte de stabilité politique. Les réformes ont concerné le recrutement, la gestion et l'organisation d’encadrement des fonctionnaires, mais aussi leur formation, dans l’objectif de renforcer leurs compétences. L'introduction en 1999 du Master in Public Administration (MPA) en milieu universitaire valorise la scientificité du savoir administratif, sans abandonner les dispositifs et les critères de sélection préexistants. À la lumière d’une mise en perspective historique, de l’analyse de la circulation transnationale de modèle éducatif et de l’étude de la modernisation de la bureaucratie, le MPA se révèle être l’instrument d’une double transformation, celle de l’enseignement supérieur et celle de l’administration chinoise contemporaine. Le MPA accompagne et rend possible la modernisation du pays, en permettant à l’enseignement supérieur d’introduire de nouvelles pratiques, à l'État-Parti de réformer l’administration sans rupture et aux agents du secteur public d’acquérir des ressources valorisables, quel que soit le scénario de transformation. / Changing nothing to change everything: innovation and continuity in the reforms of Chinese administrative training — At the end of the Maoist era, the Communist Party of China (CPC) attempted to create a more highly‑skilled bureaucracy to achieve economic development in a stable political context. Reforms concerned not just recruitment, management and civil service organization, but also the training of officials in order to improve their skills. The introduction of the Master of Public Administration (MPA) in 1999 enhanced the scientific character of administrative knowledge while pre‑existing selective mechanisms were retained. The MPA supports the country’s modernization by enabling the State‑Party to undertake continuous reform of public administration. It allows as well the emergence of a new ethos and a community of vision among the new generation of civil servants, whose competences are adjustable to several possible political scenarios.

Disparate student academic outcomes and program access is a problem at Master of Public Administration (MPA) programs in the Northeast United States The current admission committee members at the case university did not know institution leaders' rationale for eliminating the Graduate Records Examination (GRE) criterion. The decision to exclude the GRE as an MPA admission requirement was enacted prior to their respective tenures. The program leadership expressed interest in exploring research-based admission criteria to enhance student access and predictive outcomes. Supported by critical pedagogy and humanist theories, the purpose of this case study was to investigate admission committee members' viewpoints about the GRE's predictive efficacy for MPA applicants. Two MPA admission committee members were purposefully selected to be study participants. Data were collected via semi structured individual and focus group interviews. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis for emergent themes. The study findings were: (a) GRE scores reduce applicant access to MPA programs; (b) student access to MPA programs may improve should universities use a broader array of non-cognitive admission assessments; (c) students with low GRE scores may still attain the MPA; and (d) the GRE Quantitative section is not relevant to assess the soft skills MPA graduates will need in the public sector. These findings can be used by the case university MPA stakeholders to implement a model of varied non-cognitive admission methods. This study may promote social change by providing MPA admission stakeholders with a broader selection of non-cognitive assessments to support increased rates of applicant access and program completion outcomes.