Public Administration

The Master of Public Administration M.P.A. degree emphasizes professional education for future public service leaders. By offering a variety of fields in which a student can gain substantive focus while obtaining training in public administration and policy, the dregee responds to the needs of tomorrow’s managers and policy analysts. Students have access to Syracuse University’s graduate courses as well as those at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Working with advisors, students have ample opportunity to create an individualized appropriate programs of study.

Student Learning Outcomes

1. Demonstrate competence in the public-sector budgeting process, including: • Design and produce a flexible budget for a government or nonprofit organization; • Apply concepts and measures of efficiency, equity, and adequacy to the evaluation of government revenue policies; Apply concepts of direct, indirect, fixed, step, and variable costs to the analysis of expenditure needs

2. Identify core competencies necessary for helping to shape the organizational environment (broadly defined) in which they operate and for managing individuals, groups, clients, and programs

3. Analyze various market scenarios to assess how goods and services will be allocated, and assess the efficiency and distributional impacts of government intervention in markets

4. Use data to produce and interpret a range of descriptive and inferential statistics, as well as analyze the strengths and weaknesses of statistical concepts and techniques used in policy analysis, management analysis and research to develop recommendations for improvement

5. Assess the conditions under which certain managerial tools may be applied to improve programmatic results and overall organizational effectiveness

6. Effectively summarize, appraise, and communicate technical and professional information, through both oral and written media

MPA Degree Overview

The degree requires a residency of 12 to 18 months. All students begin the program in early July. Full-time students complete the program the following June.

The MPA degree requires 40 credits of coursework. 25 of these credits satisfy core requirements, ensuring proficiency in economics, quantitative analysis, organization and management theory, public budgeting and finance, and the political context of public management.

Additional elective coursework satisfies the remaining 15 credits. These elective courses may be selected from the public administration and international affairs department, other Maxwell School social science departments, or elsewhere in the University.

Degree requirements are flexible enough to allow a student to design a program in state and local government, financial management and analysis, public and nonprofit management, international development administration, environmental policy and administration, international and national security policy, health management and policy, and social policy while completing the MPA core requirements.