About

Are you interested in being a leader in your local government, or confronting complex policy issues for your community? Do you ever wonder what it takes to develop, implement, administer, and evaluate public policy initiatives across governmental and non-profit boundaries?

The MPA degree is designed to provide students with basic administrative concepts and skills necessary to be successful in a variety of administrative careers in the public, including legislative, executive, and judicial agencies, and not-for-profit agencies. The MPA program is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA).

Our mission is to prepare professionals to meet the needs and challenges of public service; conduct scholarly and applied research in public administration and policy; and engage students and faculty in partnerships with governmental, non-profit, professional, and educational organizations.

While our primary service area is eastern North Carolina, our aim is to offer educational opportunities that enable our graduates to be competitive far beyond this geographic area. Our student body is comprised of roughly equal proportions of in-service students and pre-service students. As with most programs. in-service students, these individuals work primarily in eastern North Carolina. Our pre-service students, on the other hand, tend to come from all across the state, with some coming from other states and countries. While our graduates are employed heavily in the eastern of North Carolina, many are also employed outside this region at all levels of government and non-profit organizations.

ECU Advantage

What makes the MPA degree distinctive among academic degrees is its focus on the public sector and issues of policy making and governance. MPA degrees are specifically designed to enable students to work at all levels of government, although our program focuses more on local government in North Carolina. The MPA degree is also broader in its focus, allowing our graduates to work across multiple policy/administrative areas such as city/county government, human resources, budgeting, police, planning, economic development, health care administration, or non-profit management.

Our faculty bring their experiences working in diverse capacities with non-profit agencies as well as county, city, and federal government, to their teaching and research. They do work on such topics as transportation policy, homelessness, human resource management issues, electronic governmental information management, state-federal interactions, and social welfare policy.

Our classes are offered in the evening or online. About one third of our classes are offered online.

As an ECU student, you can research your future career in Steppingblocks. Explore real-world stats about your major, your interests, and your dream job title with data-powered career exploration tools designed for doers like you.

What You Will Study

Program Coordinator:  Casey Fleming (134-A Brewster Building; 252-328-1063; flemingca17@ecu.edu)

The Public Administration, MPA program is designed to provide students with basic administrative skills which can be utilized in a variety of administrative careers. It is based on a core curriculum of required public administration and quantitative analysis courses with a variety of related electives that will provide students with a choice of emphases depending upon career objectives.

The program offers two concentrations. The traditional concentration requires a 42 s.h. and is for pre-service students. The executive concentration requires 36 s.h. and is for those with a minimum of five years of relevant professional experience, at least 3 of which are at the mid- or upper-level.

The degree requires 36 or 42 s.h. as follows: 

1. Core courses - 21 s.h.
  • PADM 6100 - Politics and Management in Public Agencies
  • PADM 6101 - Analysis for the Public Sector
  • PADM 6102 - Quantitative Methods for Public Administration
  • PADM 6110 - Human Resource Management in Public Agencies
  • PADM 6120 - Public Budgeting and Finance
  • PADM 6161 - Applied Policy Analysis
  • PADM 6220 - Leadership and Ethics in the Public Sector
2. Internship - 3 s.h.

Pre-service students enrolled in the traditional concentration are required to complete a 3 s.h. internship (approximately 300 hours of work). In-service students enrolled in the executive concentration are not required to complete an internship.

  • PADM 6887 - Internship in Public Administration OR
  • PADM 6889 - Internship in Public Administration
3. Concentrations - 12-15 s.h.

Traditional concentration students select 15 s.h. and executive concentration select 12 s.h. from the following list of electives.

  • PADM 6111 - Contemporary Problems in Public Personnel Administration
  • PADM 6112 - Productivity in the Public Sector
  • PADM 6116 - Women, Public Policy, and Administration
  • PADM 6121 - Financial Management in State and Local Governments
  • PADM 6123 - Economic Development
  • PADM 6124 - State and Local Government Finance
  • PADM 6130 - Urban Policy and Administration
  • PADM 6140 - Administrative Law and Ethics
  • PADM 6150 - Seminar in Public Administration
  • PADM 6160 - Public Policy Formulation and Implementation
  • PADM 6162 - Environmental Politics and Administration
  • PADM 6163 - Environmental Policy
  • PADM 6164 - State and Local Environmental Policy
  • PADM 6165 - Program Evaluation
  • PADM 6170 - Intergovernmental/Interagency Relations
  • PADM 6210 - Organization Theory in the Public Context
  • PADM 6240 - Management of Non-Profit Organizations
  • PADM 6260 - Management of Public Information Technology
  • PADM 6325 - Transportation Policy
  • PADM 6400 - Health Policy
  • PADM 6410 - Health Policy Analysis
  • PADM 6887 - Internship in Public Administration
  • PADM 6889 - Internship in Public Administration
  • PADM 6898 - Independent Research
  • PADM 6899 - Independent Research
  • Other courses as approved by the program coordinator
  • Other courses as approved by the program coordinator
    • Note:

    Graduate certificates taken by MPA students generally require 12-15 s.h. Students should consult the MPA program coordinator prior to choosing a graduate certificate to assure the credits will be counted as electives.

    4. MPA professional paper - 3 s.h.

    All students must enroll in PADM 6900 and complete a professional paper in which they identify a public management problem or policy issue and develop a problem-resolution strategy. The completed paper must be successfully defended before the MPA faculty. As the capstone course, students must have completed all of their core classes before taking PADM 6900. The course is offered almost exclusively in spring semesters. Students are encouraged to work with the program coordinator to assure they are pacing their course work accordingly. 

      Comprehensive assessment requirement

      A comprehensive assessment is required for all graduate programs at ECU. The comprehensive assessment for this program is the completion and defense of the professional paper (PADM 6900).

        For more information about this degree visit the university's academic catalogs.
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