Enhancing professional and practical experiences for MPA students: Lessons from a manager-in-residence program

Abstract

Considerable scholarly attention has been paid to various efforts aimed at preparing graduate students for careers as practitioners of public administration. One such approach is hiring practitioners-in-residence (PIR) or employing professors of practice. This paper first reports results of a web content analysis of 355 NASPAA programs that determined the extent of use of PIRs. Results show that only 17% of programs explicitly list a practitioner-in-residence. Given that less than a fifth of programs have practitioners-in-residence on their faculty, this paper provides an in-depth description of one such initiative i.e., Texas State University’s experience with the Manager-in-Residence (MIR) program. Numerous ways in which the MIR program helped connect MPA students with the practice side of public administration are described. Finally, the implications of such a program for public administration pedagogy and practice and its potential for adoption by programs are discussed.

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