Bachelor of Arts, Minor in Public Administration

Regulations effective September 1, 2023.

The Public Administration minor is designed for students who are seeking managerial careers at the municipal, provincial, and federal levels of government, as well as within non-profit and quasi-governmental organizations. Students can select a mix of Arts and Applied Studies courses in such areas as governance, political science, public policy, economics, public finance, budgeting, legal studies, human resources management, industrial relations, communications, health administration, and indigenous studies.

The role of public servants is becoming increasingly complex as the global economy becomes more integrated and the capacity of nation-states to act decisively is constrained by a multitude of factors. Public Administration professionals must possess strategic, analytic, and creative thinking skills. This minor prepares students to assume public sector managerial roles in the knowledge-based society; it provides them with exposure to administrative concepts, tools and practice, yet keeps them firmly grounded in the liberal arts education program.

Public Administration Minor (optional) - 30 credits

Required courses

(24 credits)

GOVN 301	Governance, the Public Sector and Corporate Power	(3)
GOVN 380/HSRV 363 or GOVN/POLI 405 or GOVN 450	Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Governance or Innovative Public Management or Public Budgeting and Financial Management in a Globalized World	(3)
GOVN/LGST 377 or GLST/GOVN/POLI 440 or LGST 331* or INST 426*	Issues in Access to Information and Privacy Protection or Global Governance and Law or Administrative Law or Aboriginal Law and Government	(3)
A Policy course, such as:
GOVN 390/POLI 392 or GOVN/POLI/GLST 403	Public Policy and Administrative Governance or Public Policy in a Global Area	(3)
A Statistics course, such as:
CMNS 308 or SOCI 301	Understanding Statistical Evidence or Social Statistics	(3)
A Professional Ethics course, such as:
PHIL 333	Professional Ethics** or Other PHIL professional ethics course	(3)
Indigenous cultural competency course, such as:
INST 203 or INST 205 or POLI 311 or ANTH 362	Indigenous Studies I or Indigenous Studies II or Aboriginal Politics and Governments or First Peoples of Canada	(3)
Women-focused of gender studies course, such as:
ANTH 375 or HSRV 421 or POLI 350 or LGST 390	All WGST courses or The Anthropology of Gender or Advocacy from the Margins or Women in Canadian Politics or Women, Equality, and the Law *	(3)

Electives

(6 credits)

GOVN	All GOVN courses that are not required courses
GLST 205	Building Blocks of Global Studies: Overview of Approaches, Concepts, and Issues	(3)
GLST/ENVS 243	Environmental Change in a Global Context	(3)
ENVS 305	Environmental Impact Assessment	(3)
ENVS 435	Transformative Change in Building Sustainable Communities	(3)
ECON 247 or ECON 248	Microeconomics or Macroeconomics	(3)
ADMN 232* or SOCI 300 or ORGB 326* or ORGB 364*	Introduction to Management or How Humans Organize: From Primary Groups to the World Wide Web or Organizational Theory or Organizational Behavior	(3)
SOCI 381	The Rich and the Rest: The Sociology of Wealth, Power, and Inequality	(3)
IDRL*	All IDRL courses
HRMT*	All HRMT courses
LBST	All LBST courses
POEC	All POEC courses
POLI	All POLI courses

Notes:

All courses above are designated Social Science, unless otherwise indicated by asterisks.

*Applied Studies courses. Note that students are only allowed to take 18 credits of Applied Studies towards an Arts degree.

**Humanities.

Language proficiency

Students who wish to pursue employment in the federal civil service or foreign affairs are strongly encouraged to take French for their Option courses. Students interested in North American integration should take Spanish. Students interested in governance capacity building for First Nations communities should consider taking an Indigenous language course.

Information effective Sept. 1, 2023 to Aug. 31, 2024.

Updated June 22, 2023 by Office of the Registrar (calendar@athabascau.ca)