A professional master's degree for people who govern, regulate and administer public services, with a Middle West emphasis on health policy and regulatory practice.
The Master of Public Administration prepares administrators for the specific difficulty of public work: acting lawfully, spending accountably and delivering under political scrutiny. It combines public law, public finance, policy analysis and the management of public organisations.
The university's specialisation shapes the electives and cases. Public health agencies, regulators, insurers and publicly funded providers supply most of the material, so students work on licensing, inspection, procurement and emergency governance rather than generic management scenarios.
The program is delivered fully online and is written for people already holding administrative posts, with every deliverable modelled on a document such a post actually produces.
Mode of study
Fully online, asynchronous study with scheduled tutorial consultations and policy workshops
Admission requirements
Bachelor's degree in any discipline, or at least three years of experience in public administration or a public-interest organisation
Learning outcomes
What graduates are able to do
01Draft an administrative decision that survives review for legality and proportionality
02Build and defend a programme budget, including performance indicators
03Design a policy option appraisal with costed alternatives and an implementation plan
04Run a compliant public procurement and manage the resulting contract
05Lead an organisation through an accountability process: audit, inspection or public inquiry
Full syllabus
Curriculum, semester by semester
Semester 1 — The public law framework
Authority, legality and accountability
30 credits
MPA-101
Administrative Law and Public Authority
10 credits
250 hours total workload
Sources of administrative power, due process, discretion and its limits, reasons and review of administrative decisions.
Course learning outcomes
Identify the legal basis and limits of a given administrative power
Draft a reasoned decision meeting due-process requirements
Predict the grounds on which a decision would be challenged
Assessment: Decision drafting portfolio (60%) and examination (40%)
MPA-102
Governance, Ethics and Public Integrity
10 credits
250 hours total workload
Conflict of interest, transparency and access to information, whistleblowing, lobbying rules and anti-corruption controls.
Course learning outcomes
Design a conflict-of-interest regime for an agency
Apply a transparency statute to a disclosure request
Assess an integrity risk map and propose controls
Assessment: Integrity framework (60%) and case examination (40%)
MPA-103
Public Policy Analysis
10 credits
250 hours total workload
Problem definition, option generation, criteria and weighting, distributional impact and the politics of implementation.
Course learning outcomes
Write a structured option appraisal with explicit criteria
Assess distributional effects across affected groups
Produce a decision-ready policy memorandum
Assessment: Policy memorandum and appraisal (100%)
Semester 2 — Money and delivery
Public finance and public operations
30 credits
MPA-201
Public Budgeting and Financial Management
10 credits
250 hours total workload
Budget cycles, appropriation and virement, performance budgeting, fiscal rules, internal control and external audit.
Course learning outcomes
Prepare a programme budget with performance indicators
Explain variance to an oversight body
Respond to an audit finding with a corrective action plan
Assessment: Budget submission (60%) and audit response (40%)
MPA-202
Public Procurement and Contract Management
10 credits
250 hours total workload
Procedure selection, specifications, award criteria, challenge and remedy, and the management of long-term public contracts.
Course learning outcomes
Draft award criteria that are lawful and evaluable
Manage a bid challenge without invalidating the procedure
Design contract performance monitoring for a service contract
Assessment: Tender file (70%) and contract review (30%)
MPA-203
Managing Public Organisations
10 credits
250 hours total workload
Public human resource rules, motivation in mission-driven organisations, inter-agency coordination and change under political oversight.
Course learning outcomes
Design a workforce plan under public employment constraints
Structure a coordination mechanism between two agencies
Lead a service redesign with a stakeholder and communication plan
Assessment: Organisational change plan (100%)
Semester 3 — Health governance specialisation
Regulation and public health administration
30 credits
MPA-301
Health Policy and Regulation
10 credits
250 hours total workload
Licensing, inspection, sanctioning, public insurance design and the instruments available to a health regulator.
Course learning outcomes
Select a regulatory instrument proportionate to a defined risk
Design an inspection regime with escalation criteria
Evaluate a public coverage decision against statutory purpose
Assessment: Regulatory design paper (60%) and examination (40%)
MPA-302
Crisis, Emergency and Continuity Governance
10 credits
250 hours total workload
Emergency powers and their limits, incident command, resource allocation under scarcity, and public communication during a crisis.
Course learning outcomes
Draft an emergency measure with proportionality and sunset provisions
Build an allocation protocol for a scarce resource
Deliver crisis communication that withstands later review
Assessment: Emergency exercise dossier (100%)
MPA-303
Research Methods for Public Administration
10 credits
250 hours total workload
Programme evaluation designs, administrative data, interviews and document analysis, and the preparation of the capstone protocol.
Course learning outcomes
Choose an evaluation design appropriate to a public programme
Handle administrative and personal data lawfully in research
Write an approved capstone protocol
Assessment: Approved capstone protocol (100%)
Semester 4 — Capstone
Applied administrative research
30 credits
MPA-401
Capstone Thesis and Defence
30 credits
750 hours total workload
An independent 15,000–18,000 word applied study of a real administrative or regulatory problem, ending in recommendations addressed to a named decision maker.
Course learning outcomes
Diagnose an administrative problem with evidence
Produce implementable, costed and lawful recommendations
Defend the analysis before an examination panel
Assessment: Capstone thesis (80%) and oral defence (20%)
PDF downloads
Three English documents for this program
PDF document
MPA Program Handbook
4 pages · 71 KB
Full program description, mode of study and admission requirements
Orientation: Studying Public Administration Online
21 min · Programme Director
Portal, deliverable formats, consultation booking and capstone timeline.
Video lecture
Performance Budgeting Without Illusions
42 min · Faculty of Business
What indicators can and cannot control, and how targets get gamed.
Statute
Procurement and Transparency Statutes
Released in the study portal
Curated procurement, freedom-of-information and integrity provisions used across the program.
Reading
Public Administration Reading Plan
Released in the study portal
Chapter-level plan per course, split into mandatory and supplementary tiers.
Template
Public Budget Workbook
Released in the study portal
Programme budget model with performance indicators, variance sheet and audit trail.
Video lecture
Regulating Health Providers
39 min · Faculty of Medical Law
Licensing, inspection and sanctioning of clinics, laboratories and practitioners.
Case study
Regulatory Inspection Case Pack
Released in the study portal
Five inspection files from opening to sanction, including the appeal outcomes.
Slide deck
Running a Lawful Tender
50 slides · Workshop deck
Procedure choice, criteria drafting, evaluation records and challenge handling.
Slide deck
The Budget Cycle End to End
58 slides · Annotated deck
Preparation, appropriation, execution, reporting and audit, with a worked programme budget.
Slide deck
Writing a Policy Memorandum
36 slides · Workshop deck
From problem statement to recommendation in a format a minister will read.
PDF documents are free to download in English. Presentations, recorded lectures, readings, cases, datasets and templates are released inside the study portal at the start of each course window and remain available to enrolled students for the duration of the program.
How students are graded
Assessment structure
50–70%
Professional documents
Decisions, budgets, tender files and policy memoranda in the form the workplace uses.
20–40%
Examinations
Open-book case examinations in administrative and regulatory law.
10–30%
Exercises and simulations
Emergency exercise, bid challenge and oversight hearing simulations.
30 credits
Capstone
Applied study with recommendations and an oral defence.
Final independent work
Capstone thesis (30 credits)
The MPA capstone is an applied study of 15,000–18,000 words on a real problem in a public or public-interest organisation. It must end with recommendations that are lawful, costed and addressed to an identified decision maker.
Semester 3: problem statement, host organisation agreement and protocol approval
Weeks 1–4: document and stakeholder mapping
Weeks 5–10: evidence collection and option development
Weeks 11–16: full draft, supervisor feedback and legality check
Weeks 17–18: submission, similarity check and oral defence
Fees
Tuition and payment
Total tuition
USD USD 4,999
Total tuition for the complete Master of Public Administration, including all study materials, tutorial consultations, examinations and the capstone defence.
Deposit on enrolment: USD 999
Four semester instalments of USD 1,000
No separate examination, material or graduation fees
Tuition is quoted in United States dollars. Payment schedules are agreed in writing with the Student Affairs Office before enrolment.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a law degree?
No. The administrative law courses are taught from first principles for non-lawyers, with legal drafting practised throughout.
Is the MPA useful outside government?
Yes. Regulated providers, insurers and non-profits face the same accountability, procurement and transparency rules.
Can the capstone use my own agency as the case?
Yes, and it is encouraged. A short host-organisation agreement is signed before the protocol is approved.
How does the MPA differ from the MHA?
The MPA governs and regulates public services; the MHA runs a health care provider organisation day to day.
Interested in the MPA?
The Student Affairs Office answers curriculum, admission and enrolment questions in English.