Welcome to the MPA website. We provide a quality education for public service careers. The MPA is a professional degree for leaders and analysts in public and nonprofit organizations. We promote competence, integrity, and leadership in public service. The experience of Hurricane Katrina highlights the importance of these values. If you want to make a difference, come join us.

The University of New Orleans MPA program offers:

• Outstanding faculty who combine academic excellence and practical experience

• Access to special expertise in hazard policy, nonprofit leadership, urban planning, community and economic development, and urban administration

• Opportunities to work and learn in New Orleans during the recovery from
  Hurricane Katrina

• Convenient class schedules

• A diverse student body

Degree Requirements:

Prerequisites:
Because people come to public service from many different backgrounds, any undergraduate major from an accredited institution is acceptable. Students are required to have one undergraduate course in American Government and one in Economics. These prerequisites may be taken early in the MPA program.

Requirements:
Students must complete required course work and submit a satisfactory thesis or project. The course work requirement is 42 credit hours, exclusive of prerequisites. Core courses covering the general knowledge and skills necessary for public service administrators comprise 27 hours. Students then specialize with additional course work (nine hours) and capstone courses or thesis credit (six hours). Students without public service experience will do an internship, typically in conjunction with their capstone courses.

• Core Courses (27 hours)
  
• PADM 6010 The Profession of Public Administration
  
• PADM 6020 Bureaucracy and Democracy
  
• PADM 6110 Public Budgeting
  
• PADM 6160 Law and Ethics in Public Administration
  
• PADM 6180 Human Resource Administration in the Public Sector
  
• PADM 6201 Policy Analysis and Program Evaluation
  
• PADM 6401 Administrative Behavior
  
• PADM 6410 Technology in Public Organizations
  
• PDAM 6001 Research Methods

Electives:
Students may choose from designated sets of electives that draw on special strengths of our faculty and opportunities in the New Orleans area or, with the advice and approval of the MPA coordinator, they may design their own programs from graduate courses throughout the university. Areas of faculty specialization include:

• Nonprofit Leadership. The MPA program offers a concentration in nonprofit leadership. The nonprofit track consists of five courses, two of which replace core courses so that the total hour requirement is still 42.

• PADM 4220.  The Nonprofit Sector.
• PADM 4221.  Collaboration, Partnership and Coalition Building. 
• PADM 4222.  Legal and Ethical Issues in the Nonprofit Sector.  It substitutes for PADM 6160, Law and Ethics in Public Administration, in the MPA core curriculum.
• PADM 4223.  Financial Administration and Development for Nonprofit Organizations.
• PADM 4224.  Leadership in Nonprofit Organizations.  It substitutes for PADM 6110, Public Budgeting, in the MPA curriculum.
• Hazard Policy
• Economic and Community Development
• Urban Planning
• Urban Administration
  
  

Capstone Courses (6 hours)
Capstone I and II provide students near the end of their program with opportunities to synthesize the course work while applying their knowledge to a practical problem culminating in a final project. Students who choose a thesis instead of a final project may take three hours of thesis credit instead of Capstone II.