Master of Public Administration – Public Administration Concentration online

Apply By: 2/28/25

Start Class: 3/17/25

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Program Overview

Check all the boxes with an online public admin MPA

$16,740^* Total Tuition

As few as 12 months Program Duration

36 Credit Hours

Operate at the forefront of public policy decision-making and become a force for positive change. Earn your Master of Public Administration – Public Administration Concentration degree online on a flexible schedule and qualify for leadership roles in government such as policy advisor, agency supervisor and operations manager.

Learn how to evaluate programs and make policy recommendations while gaining hands-on experience in grant writing, budgeting, public speaking and human resource management. Hone your critical-thinking, analytical and leadership skills and partner with real-world clients to produce relevant content such as HR manuals and public program plans.

Study 100 percent online while you continue to work and complete the program in as few as 12 months.

Upon completion of the online public admin MPA you will be able to:

Evaluate public and nonprofit programs
Analyze public policy and make policy recommendations
Supervise employees in public and nonprofit organizations

As a graduate of this online master’s program, you will be qualified for various roles in leadership such as:

Human Resource Manager
Agency Supervisor
Policy Advisor
Project Manager
Operations Manager
Program Manager

The Romain College of Business at the University of Southern Indiana is one of only 5 percent of business schools worldwide to earn this prestigious accreditation from The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International).

Also available:

USI also offers multiple liberal arts concentrations online. Check out all our College of Liberal Arts online programs.

$16,740^* Total Tuition

As few as 12 months Program Duration

36 Credit Hours

The Online MBA in a Few Words

Listen to successful graduates and students describe their experience in the USI online MBA program.

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Need more information?

Call 844-515-9104844-515-9104

Tuition

Benefit from budget-friendly tuition

USI is committed to providing an outstanding education that is also affordable. Tuition is structured to give our students the best value and flexibility.

Tuition Breakdown

$465^* Per Credit Unit

$16,740^* Total Tuition

For more information about tuition, fees and other costs, visit our Financial Aid Cost of Attendance page.

*Tuition applicable for current start dates and is subject to change. Any questions regarding tuition should be directed to the Bursar's Office. If you step out of the program, returning to the program may have different tuition and fees applied.

Application Fee

Application fee: $40

Active military service members and veterans receive an admission fee waiver. Simply apply online and select the "military waiver" option, then contact our office at 800-467-1965 so we may submit the proper forms to Graduate Studies.

Billing and Payment Schedule

https://www.usi.edu/bursar/billing-and-payments

Financial Aid

The first step in applying for financial aid is to file your Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Your FAFSA must be received by the federal processing center by April 15th each year to be considered for state financial aid as well as federal financial aid. USI's Federal School Code is 001808. You will need an FSA ID to electronically sign your FASFA. If you do not have an FSA ID, you may create one at StudentAid.gov.

Once you are admitted to the program and we receive your FAFSA, you can see the financial aid you qualify for and accept or decline your Direct Student Loan on your myUSI. For more information about tuition reimbursement or financial resources that may be available to you, visit our Student Financial Assistance page, access our Financial Aid FAQs, or contact us.

Student Financial Assistance Office

Local Phone: 812-464-1767
Toll Free Phone: 800-467-1965
Fax: 812-461-5305

Email: [email protected]

Office Hours: Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. (CDT)

Tuition Breakdown:

$465 Per Credit Hour

$16,740^* Total Tuition

Calendar

Stay on track with our convenient course schedule

Now is the time to start earning your MPA – Public Administration Concentration online and take the fast track to a more successful career. USI provides you with the convenience of an accelerated application-to-start calendar.

Now Enrolling

2/28/25 Next Application Due Date

3/17/25 Next Class Start Date

View full calendar +

Billing and Payment Schedule - Please visit https://www.usi.edu/bursar/bill-and-payment-schedule/

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Now Enrolling:

2/28/25 Next Application Deadline

3/17/25 Start Classes

Have questions or need more information about our online programs?

Ready to take the next step toward earning your degree online from USI?

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Admissions

What you’ll need to apply online to USI

The University of Southern Indiana's online MPA – Public Administration Concentration has specific requirements that applicants must meet to enroll. Please read the admission guidelines to ensure you qualify.

Bachelor's Degree From an accredited institution
GPA Minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0
GMAT or GRE Test scores are optional
Receive Credits For prior learning

Admission Requirements

Applicants seeking to be admitted to the Master of Public Administration program generally hold a bachelor’s degree (any major is acceptable) with at least a 3.0 grade point average on a 4.0 scale. Students with less than a 3.0 GPA may be admitted on a conditional basis upon review by the admissions committee. In some instances, students with less than a 3.0 GPA may be asked to provide additional information as part of their application.

Application Procedures:

Submit an online application and $40 application fee.
Submit transcripts to Graduate Studies.
- Official transcripts are required only from the institution at which your highest degree was earned. Electronic transcripts are preferred and can be emailed from the previous institution to [email protected]
- Unofficial transcripts from other institutions attended can be submitted via email by the applicant to [email protected]
- Applicants who wish to seek transfer credit for graduate coursework must submit an official transcript from the institution where that work was completed.
- Mailed transcripts can be sent to this address:
  Graduate Studies
  University of Southern Indiana
  8600 University Blvd.
  Evansville, IN 47712
Read the full transcript policy by clicking here.
International applicants may be required to submit additional information.

Credit for Prior Learning

The Credit for Prior Learning (CPL) policy allows for the granting of up to 9 credit hours for previous experiential learning through a portfolio review. Approved hours are awarded as elective credit and are not tied to specific course numbers.

Courses

Explore the courses in your online public administration MPA

To complete this MPA – Public Administration Concentration, students must choose from 10 core courses and six electives to complete 36 credit hours.

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Core Courses

Students must take all courses listed below, totalling 27 credit hours:

PA 632: Intro to Public Administration

Duration: 7 Weeks weeks

Credit Hours: 3

This course is an introduction to the basic issues, tensions, concepts and theories surrounding the field of public administration. Students will be exposed to the literature of public administration from the classical to the modern period. This course will examine the constitutional foundations and evolution of public administration, the internal operations of public administration, including decision-making, budgeting, and human resources management, and the ongoing challenges facing public and nonprofit organizations.

PA 644: Policies and Processes in the Public Sector

Duration: 7 Weeks weeks

Credit Hours: 3

An overview of policies and processes in the public sector, with an emphasis on the analytical and policy process fields of policy analysis, including an overview of decision making strategies, policy creation and program evaluation.

PA 645: Program Evaluation in the Public and Nonprofit Sector

Duration: 7 Weeks weeks

Credit Hours: 3

This course is intended to introduce students to the topic of program evaluation, an essential aspect of most publicly and privately funded programs today. Students will examine how the demand for accountability stresses the need for measuring program effectiveness to achieve stated goals and objectives. This course examines methods and practices to assess and evaluate programs. This course fulfills an objective of the Master of Public Administration program by teaching students practical skills necessary for the management of public and nonprofit organizations.

PA 606: Public and Nonprofit Personnel Administration

Duration: 7 Weeks weeks

Credit Hours: 3

The purpose of this course is to examine public and nonprofit personnel issues, specifically issues related to personnel/human resource management, employee motivation, evaluation, promotion/demotion, training, benefits, wages and salaries, as well as disciplinary policies and various legal aspects relating to public sector and nonprofit employment.

PA 609: Budgeting in Public and Nonprofit Administration

Duration: 7 Weeks weeks

Credit Hours: 3

This course attempts to examine how the behaviors of individuals, groups, and organizations influence the operation of government agencies and nonprofit organizations. In this class, we will draw on case studies of organizational behavior and organizational theory to develop our thinking about how to shape, guide, direct, and control public and nonprofit organizations.

PA 601: Organizational Behavior

Duration: 7 Weeks weeks

Credit Hours: 3

PA 616: Research Methods in Public Administration

Duration: 7 Weeks weeks

Credit Hours: 3

An examination of the fundamentals of qualitative and quantitative research methods relevant to the field of public administration. Students will be introduced to the real world of research methods with assignments which reflect the challenges of doing research. Students will learn how to develop a research design, collect a sample, write a literature review and construct

PA 617: Statistics in Public Administration

Duration: 7 Weeks weeks

Credit Hours: 3

An introduction to statistical methods used within public administration. Students will learn to develop and present descriptive statistics, bi-variate data analyis and regression. The focus of the class is on the application of statistics to address policy and management questions.

PA 615: Legal Aspects of Public Administration

Duration: 7 Weeks weeks

Credit Hours: 3

The purpose of this course is to examine legal and Constitutional issues relating to public administration. Many topics will be addressed in depth, including but not limited to public sector affirmative action, implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, whistle-blowing protections, due process protections, public employee privacy and free speech in the workplace, primarily through examining seminal federal court rulings. More generally, this course will look at legal aspects and legal challenges to agency, regulations, policy implementation, and laws pertaining to the public sector.

Elective Courses

Students are able to take the Capstone and 6 credits of electives (listed below) or 6 credits of thesis and 3 credits of electives. Also, students must choose between PA 684 and PA 631.

COMM 613: Political Communication

Duration: 7 Weeks weeks

Credit Hours: 3

Political communication incorporates the creation, distribution, control, use, and effects of information as a political resource. Students will explore such topics as the role of journalists and news organizations in the political system, the development and effectiveness of communication strategies in political campaigns, communication patterns and issues in international relations, and the function of communication in the politics of modern societies. Special attention will be given to the relationship between political communication and civic discourse.

COMM 614: Problematic Workplace Communication

Duration: 7 Weeks weeks

Credit Hours: 3

This course provides a review of the research and applied approaches to organizational communication. This course includes an examination of the process of selecting appropriate communication channels, a consideration of the ways in which meaning, both verbal and nonverbal, is conveyed, and an exploration of ways in which communication can help alleviate typical interpersonal problems within organizations.

PA 565: Comparative Public Policy

Duration: 7 Weeks weeks

Credit Hours: 3

This course is an introduction to cross-national policy research and to the fascinating and challenging issues of comparative research. Students will learn about theories and processes of policy making in a wide range of fields such as immigration, budgeting taxes, health care, welfare, education and environment. The course focuses on critical analysis and constructive alternatives of public policies in the cultural, economic, political and institutional contexts of the United States and selected other countries.

PA 684: Grant Writing

Duration: 7 Weeks weeks

Credit Hours: 3

An analysis of fundraising strategies and the management of volunteers in government agencies and nonprofit organizations.

PA 611: Leadership in Public Organizations

Duration: 7 Weeks weeks

Credit Hours: 3

An examination of leadership concepts, theories, strategies, and practices relevant to the management of public and non-profit organizations. Students will identify the various traits that characterize an exceptional leader, diagnose their personal leadership style, and apply these skills to real world situations in the public and nonprofit sectors.

PA 653: Ethics in Public Administration

Duration: 7 Weeks weeks

Credit Hours: 3

An examination of the ethical problems, dilemmas, and conflicts encountered by government officials, nonprofit administrators, and other public sector administrators. Students in this course will contemplate a variety of topics including values and ethics, situational ethics, and individual and organizational ethics which will guide them in developing their own ethical decision making framework.

PA 663: Strategic Planning

Duration: 7 Weeks weeks

Credit Hours: 3

This course is designed to provide graduate students with a foundation in strategic planning in the public and nonprofit sectors. Students learn how to apply strategic planning concepts and tools to public and nonprofit organizations to achieve goals and objectives in meeting service delivery objectives. The course focuses on analyzing the interaction of trends, market forces, and stakeholders in developing visions and strategies for public and nonprofit organizations. An important focus of this course will center on an environmental scanning process that analyzes the trends in the external environment and an assessment of an organization’s distinctive competitive strengths. Students will gain experience in assessing the quality of strategic planning through case studies, and will formulate and develop a strategic plan for a local organization. This course will require students to work collaboratively in teams on their strategic planning projects.

Other Requirements

Students who do not want to complete a thesis, may take the Capstone course and 6 credits of electives.

PA 697: Capstone Seminar in Public Administration

Duration: 7 Weeks weeks

Credit Hours: 3

This capstone course is the final required course in the Master of Public Administration program. Students in this seminar will be required to complete a capstone project, which is based on assessing a student’s ability to relate theoretical knowledge and skills learned in the MPA program and apply them to solve a problem or issue in a practical work situation. The proposed projects require students to work collaboratively in teams, collect and analyze data, present their findings and results, and propose possible solutions. The MPA program director has contacted government and nonprofit agencies in the greater Evansville area, Southwestern Indiana and the Tri-State region for projects that serve a wide variety of clients that could be completed by a team of 3-4 students within a 15-week period. In developing the final list of potential projects, the instructor attempted to provide variation in subject matter (i.e. projects that focused on management in a nonprofit organization versus public sector management).

PA 699: Thesis in Public Administration

Duration: 7 Weeks weeks

Credit Hours: 3

The thesis course is designed to allow students an opportunity to conduct original academic research in an area of public administration under the supervision of a member of the MPA faculty. In order to receive credit for the thesis, the student must successfully complete a written paper and defend the thesis project in an oral defense. Students who choose a thesis will take this course twice.

"When I was in the MBA program, we actually looked into the logic and the qualitative aspects of, 'Okay, here's the math, but does this decision actually make sense?' As a business, there are always other factors, so that was really good for me."

– Stevie Lynch

"I was able to balance my personal life and my career as well as all of my coursework."

– Sarah Matthews, MBA online graduate

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Session	Course Start	Application Deadline	Document Deadline	Registration Deadline
Spring I	1/13/25	12/27/24	1/3/25	1/10/25
Spring II	3/17/25	2/28/25	3/7/25	3/14/25
Summer I	5/12/25	4/25/25	5/2/25	5/9/25
Summer II	6/30/25	6/13/25	6/20/25	6/27/25