Application Instructions

Bush School’s Public Service and Administration Department and Texas A&M’s College of Education and Human Development Collaborative Degrees

The Bush School’s Public Service and Administration (PSAA) Department and the College of Education and Human Development have joined forces to offer a Collaborative Degrees Program (CDP). This is a coordinated effort designed to prepare individuals for an academic career focused on conducting research in the multidisciplinary field of education policy. 

Students who successfully complete all program requirements will receive both a Master of Public Service and Administration (MPSA) from the Bush School and a Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Administration (PhD) from the Department of Educational Administration and Human Resource Development in the College of Education and Human Development.

In order to participate in the CDP, applicants must first be admitted to the Bush School’s MPSA program and, subsequently, to the PhD program in Educational Administration in the Department of Educational Administration and Human Resource Development.

Current MPSA students apply to the EDAD PhD program in the spring of their first year (their second semester) and will be notified if they are accepted in the summer. However, they will defer enrollment in the EDAD PhD degree program until the following summer.

CDP students who have completed the public policy foundational core courses, public policy electives, and capstone research requirements (a total of 39 hours), and who have demonstrated the ability to complete doctoral level work by completing a total of nine hours in either the educational administration foundational core course or the educational administration research methods core course, will be awarded their MPSA degree prior to enrollment in the PhD program. CDP students will enter the EDAD’s PhD program in the summer of their second year, after they complete the degree requirements for the MPSA program.

The CDP is designed to accommodate a relatively small number of students. Attempts will be made to limit net admissions to no more than ten students per year.

The Bush School Admissions Office works with the Office of Graduate Admissions at Texas A&M to process all MPSA applications. You will need to apply through the MPSA Application process.