The Professional Report
The Professional Report (PR) is the capstone experience in the M.P.Aff. program. It is an individual-based written project in policy analysis completed in the final semester of the program and counts as your thesis. Each student selects his or her own topic and obtains the consent of two faculty members to serve on the supervising committee. MPAff students completing a specialization are required to complete a PR. Dual degree students must complete either a PR or a thesis, according to the non-LBJ degree requirements (excepting Business and Law dual degree students who must complete a PR at the LBJ School in the final semester of study).
Supervising Committee
The first reader on the supervising committee must be an LBJ School tenured or tenure-track faculty member. The second reader may be any member of the UT-Austin teaching faculty. For dual degree students, one supervisor should be from each department with the following requirements:
Communication, Community and Regional Planning, Engineering, Energy and Earth Resources, Area Studies, Social Work:
- The first reader must come from the department/school in which the PR is registered (i.e. if you are registered for LAS 398R as your PR course, your first reader must come from ILAS).
- The second reader must come from whichever Department was not chosen for the first reader.
Law & Business:
- The first reader must be from the LBJ School Faculty.
- The second reader should come from the Law or Business School (as appropriate).
Non UT Committee Member?
The Office of Graduate Studies (OGS) and the LBJ School Graduate Adviser must approve. A non-remuneration letter is required from your prospective 2nd reader stating their willingness to serve at no expense to you or the University. Both the letter and a Curriculum Vita should be attached to the PR Proposal Approval form submitted to the LBJ Graduate Adviser prior to pre-registration for the semester in which you intend to graduate.
Academic Requirements
The PR counts as three credit hours towards the Master's Degree requirement in the Department/Program for which the PR is listed (e.g. LAS 398R, PA 398R, REE 698A/B, etc.) on a credit/no credit basis. You must be registered for the Professional Report (or "thesis," as appropriate) in the semester in which you graduate. Dual degree students in Communication, Community and Regional Planning, Engineering, Energy and Earth Resources, Area Studies and Social Work should register for the PR course in the non-LBJ department the final semester of study (or, as appropriate, the thesis in the final two semesters of study). Business and Law dual degree students should register for the PR course at the LBJ School (PA 398R) in the final semester of study.
Human Subject Review
Research involving human subjects such as surveys and interviews must meet UT requirements. See http://www.utexas.edu/research/rsc/humanresearch/
Format Requirements
The Office of Graduate Studies (OGS) requires you to arrange and format your PR in a particular way. Meeting OGS format requirements involves three steps:
- Read the Format Guidelines for Master's Theses and Reports to learn about Graduate Studies' PR formatting requirements.
- Use the ITS departmental thesis template. The University's ITS Department provides thesis templates for you to download for use with Microsoft Word in both Windows and Macintosh platforms.A template is a blank pre-formatted Word document with predefined styles. The template allows you to assemble the PR in the correct order and manage electronic styles.
- Obtain formal formatting approval from an OGS Degree Evaluator in Main Building, 101 prior to completing your PR. To do so, submit a PDF of your PR complete with front matter and a generated table of contents to a Degree Evaluator in OGS.
Format Assistance
Please contact the ITS help desk, located at FAC 200-B, for formatting assistance. Students may also contact ITS by phone at 512.475.9400 or by email a help@its.utexas.edu.
Associated Forms & Procedures
The following forms need to be submitted at various times over your last two semesters:
Specific due dates
The OGS Graduate Packet Web Site has a deadline page for each semester which explains what must be submitted and the current deadlines. These deadlines are for their forms only. The LBJ Advising Blackboard site also lists each of these deadlines plus any LBJ deadlines.
Time Line
Check the LBJ Advising Community Blackboard > Advising Folder > Professional Report folder for specific semester time lines.
Examples of PRs
Check the PCL Library for bound copies of Professional Reports. According to the Librarian, the reports are requested from all over the world. You can also check abstracts on-line at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/pal/prs.html.
The Emmette S. Redford Award
The Redford Award has been awarded to a member of the graduating class since 1976 for outstanding research. A professional report can be nominated by the faculty. The recipient receives a monetary award at the LBJ spring graduation convocation.
For the purposes of the award, "outstanding research" is defined as an "original study, by an individual, that is of practical significance to policy makers; or develops insights, ideas, or concepts of significance to the understanding of the public policy process or the solution of a public problem. Furthermore, the study must manifest a high quality of research execution and preparation."
