Pre-Professional Training in Public Administration

Extract

Does the improvement of pre-professional training at an undergraduate college come at the expense of general education in the liberal arts and sciences? Does the introduction of public administration courses and programs threaten the integrity of the political science curriculum? Increasingly, liberal arts colleges have had to address these questions as students have demanded more "practical" training as a part of their undergraduate education. Within political science departments, these questions are usually raised in the context of expanding public administration offerings. In the last few years, at Providence College, we have introduced a new Public Administration Program which has significantly improved our students preparation for public sector employment in a way that is compatible with our general political science curriculum.