The difference between public service and public solutions? The skills to lead.
We know you’re driven to serve — otherwise you wouldn’t be here. But in a world where passion is equal, preparation wins out. It’s our job to make sure you’re not only prepared to serve the public through leadership, but serve it well.
Our online Master of Public Administration can help you build the skills to address public needs in effective, efficient, and imaginative ways. We want you to take the big ideas in your head and put them into action by helping you develop as a project manager, communicator, policy analyst, and financial mind. When you have an expert understanding of public administration and the professional tools to back it up, you can lead a career of consequence for your constituents.
Choose from 2 concentrations: Public Leadership and Management or Non-Profit Management.
No GRE or GMAT required.
Complete your degree 100% online, in as few as 2 years
Benefit from the only public service school in the U.S. that partners with a college of business on a Center for Entrepreneurship
25 Percent
The growth of the non-profit sector since 2001
— The New York Times
22 Million
The number of people employed in government across the U.S.
— U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
$2 Trillion
The amount invested in clean energy plants in the past decade
— Bloomberg.com
Why choose the Master of Public Administration online program?
We’re not looking to build ideologues, we want to help you influence action and explore your interests in public service. At the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs, our faculty and staff have dedicated decades to finding research-based solutions to challenges in the world, and that trickles down into the foundations of your learning.
We’re uniquely prepared to help you learn the intricacies of public administration through a pragmatic approach. Study the management of financial and human resources. Learn how to take policy from planning to financing to execution and evaluation. Connect the public and private sector as partners, not adversaries. Help cut through red tape with organizational excellence, the kind that can translate just as effectively in a town hall or the halls of Congress.
Our faculty members know the field’s obstacles and how to navigate them from firsthand experience. Our faculty members are professionals actively engaged in promoting public efforts that spark their interest. We want you to do the same, which is why we offer two distinct concentrations for the Master of Public Administration.
Recently, Ohio University’s Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs’ online Master of Public Administration (MPA) program earned a number 12 spot in the SR Education Group’s 2019 ranking of the Best Online Colleges Offering MPA Programs.
Our Concentrations Explained
Leadership in the public sector isn’t easy in a digitally enlightened, post-recession U.S. The public wants to know its dollars are being spent wisely and effectively to achieve positive outcomes locally and across the nation. Learn to blend efficacy and ethics while maximizing financial resources and personnel.
Currently 1 in 10 U.S. workers are employed in the non-profit sector, and it continues to grow. Non-profits help to fill service gaps in communities, and you can help. Merge social responsibility and entrepreneurship. Use the connective power of technology to raise funds and awareness of your efforts.
What can I do with an online Master of Public Administration?
25%
From 2001 to 2011
The nonprofit sector now employs nearly 10% of the U.S. workforce. This grew by 25% from 2001 to 2011. – The New York Times
The nonprofit sector now employs nearly 10% of the U.S. workforce. This grew by 25% from 2001 to 2011. – The New York Times
Just because you have a Master of Public Administration doesn’t mean you can’t look at your career with a private eye. Your skills can easily transfer to private sector positions, especially in industries that work closely with public organizations such as healthcare, pharmaceuticals, law, and education.
With an online MPA degree, you can put your strategic planning, communication, project management, and budgeting skills to work in leadership positions normally reserved for MBA grads. What’s the online MPA advantage? Your knowledge of how organizations function. Your ability to translate technical talk and dense data for ease in public consumption. Your sense of social responsibility. Your determination to see a project through to completion.
What’s the OHIO MPA experience like?
Hear from our students.
Our online MPA degree curriculum
Designed for action.
Unlike other Master’s in Public Administration online programs, we offer a curriculum built for the real challenges of public administration. You won’t find us teaching hypotheticals. Instead we focus on topics like data analysis, public-private partnerships, and measuring outcomes. We also offer two concentrations that reflect the current landscape of public affairs, such as management in the burgeoning non-profit sector and leadership in the public sector.
Integrative Core Courses (27 Credits)
MPA 6200 | Foundations of Public Administration | 3 Credits |
An examination of the fundamental concepts and issues in the field of public administration. | ||
MPA 6010 | Research Methods in Leadership and Public Affairs | 3 Credits |
Introduce students to the basic principles underlying social science research in the context of public affairs. | ||
MPA 5140 | Organizational Leadership | 3 Credits |
Examines how organizations have been described and theorized in public administration. | ||
MPA 5580 | Public Sector Program Evaluation | 3 Credits |
MPA 5860 | Public Budgeting | 3 Credits |
This class examines principles of sound tax policy and politics surrounding revenue decisions. It also examines processes and techniques of governmental spending decisions. The practices and fundamental concepts of government accounting, budgeting, financial management, and public finance will also be introduced. Contemporary cases of budge decision-making processes at the national, state and local budge systems will be considered. |
MPA 5850 | Policy Analysis for Public Affairs and Leadership | 3 Credits |
Focused upon key aspects of public policymaking and analysis, and designed to introduce you to ways of systemically thinking about public policies. Because one cannot analyze a policy without understanding the roots of the policy in question, in this course we spend some time understanding the key actors and forces in the policy arena, understanding how to develop an appropriate framework for analysis, and the limitations of each analytical framework. | ||
MPA 5810 | Public Private Partnerships | 3 Credits |
On much of the country, public and private actions develop business and physical infrastructure, provide needed services and contribute to other physical and intellectual attributes that constitute communities. This course examines the intermingling of public and private roles and responsibilities and the potential consequences for the business, social economic and physical development of communities that reflect the inevitable negotiation of public interest oversight and entrepreneurial risk in cross-sectoral partnership. This course will function as a public private partnership with faculty and students engaging business and public leaders to build and analyze partnerships for the future. | ||
MPA 5590 | Measuring Outcomes in Public and Non-Profit Organizations | 3 Credits |
Focuses on the skills needed to develop and implement outcome system within a public or non-profit organization. Methods for determining information needs for monitoring of service delivery and program outcomes will be explored. Evaluation issues will be considered in the context of ethical standards, program effectiveness and efficiency. | ||
MPA 6800 | Strategic Leadership and Public Value | 3 Credits |
Underlying focus is on the creation of public value. |
Public Leadership and Management Concentration (9 Credits)
MPA 5120 | Public Human Resource Management | 3 Credits |
Introduces students to the management and leadership skills needed when engaging with a public sector workforce. Specifically addresses analysis of philosophy, problems, and procedures of public personnel management; recruitment, training and promotion policies; classification of positions; and employer-employee relations. | ||
MPA 5830 | Data Analytics for Public and Non-Profit Managers | 3 Credits |
The set of skills required for today’s successful public and non-profit managers include competencies in managing complex data systems and using that data to inform decision making and strategy development. This course will focus on the critical elements of data informatics for public and non-profit fields such as education, the environment, governance, and health care. |
MPA 5870 | Financial Management in Government | 3 Credits |
The purpose of this course is to survey the principles, issues and skills of financial management in the public sector. The focus is upon applications in the public sector and not-for-profit environment. The objectives of the course are to provide student with both theoretical understanding of the topic and to develop some of the fundamental skills necessary to work competently in the field. The focus will be on preparing students to be skilled consumers of financial information who possess the ability to analyze it and make sound decisions based on their analysis. |
Non-Profit Management Concentration (9 Credits)
MPA 5680 | Nonprofit Financial Management and Resource Development | 3 Credits |
An introduction to the tradition of philanthropy and fundraising in the United States. Examines practical, moral, and legal issues involving fund development and the fundraising profession. Provides students with an opportunity to apply fundraising techniques and practices to enhance the financial commitment of individuals, corporations, foundations, and government to “real-life” development projects. | ||
MPA 5890 | Nonprofit Leadership and Governance | 3 Credits |
An introduction to the non-profit sector and its role in society, the economy, and the delivery of human services. Includes an overview of principle management junctions as each applies to non-profit organizations. |
MPA 5660 | Strategic Communication and Outreach for Nonprofit Management | 3 Credits |
A communications plan is an important part of an organization’s daily operation. Additionally, for public and nonprofit organizations in particular, the activities in the plan should support overall communications goals in ways that help raise money, create change, recruit talent, and promote mission-related goals and objectives. As a living document, it frames the way both internal and external audiences perceive the organization; and since many nonprofits have limited staff and financial resources available for communications activities, it is even more important that these resources be deployed as strategically as possible. This course will offer an overview of communications concepts and media activities in ways that will help students develop a strategic communication plan focused on emphasizing a commitment to organizational mission; building trust among internal and external audiences; clarifying organizational priorities; and generating public value. |
Meet the faculty
Our online MPA is led by a faculty of industry experts with a wide range of interests and experiences. Committed to sharing their skills with the next generation of public administration professionals, our faculty fuels the dynamic online MPA program.
Read more about their research and work below, starting with our online MPA Program Director, Dr. Jason Jolley:
Dr.Jason Jolley