MPA Public Administration (distance learning)

Entry requirements

A good honours degree in a relevant subject, or equivalent professional experience and/or qualifications. Preferably, applicants will have experience of working in a managerial role in a public sector organisation. Applicants may be subject to interview.

English language proficiency at a minimum of IELTS band 6.5 with no component score below 6.0.

Months of entry

September

Course content

Why take this course?

If you want to enter or enhance a career in central, regional or local government, or in organisations in partnerships with governments, this course has been designed to meet your needs. It brings together people from a wide range of organisations to create an inter-cultural, inter-professional and inter-organisational educational environment.

While we prefer applicants to have experience of a public sector managerial role, exceptions may be made for a good relevant degree.

What will I experience?

On this course you can:

• Examine the ways in which public policies are made and implemented and acquire specialist subject knowledge in fields relevant to your career choices
• Compare policy processes and outputs within specific policy fields including health, education, welfare, economic development, defence, policing and European integration
• Obtain a wider international perspective of public policies, management systems and administrative systems

What opportunities might it lead to?

The course delivers transferable lifelong skills that you will be able to apply to complex issues, both systematically and creatively. This will improve your capabilities and enable you to work with self-direction and originality, as well as help you contribute to public administration and society at large.

Module Details

We will introduce you to different ways of delivering public services and how to access their efficiency and effectiveness. As a result, you will gain knowledge and develop an understanding of the following areas:

The impact of contextual forces on public organisations including:

• the legal system
• ethical, economic, environmental, social and technological change issues
• international developments
• corporate governance
• the role of public sector organisations in economic development and regeneration
• the marketisation of service delivery
• citizenship issues in public organisations
• the concepts, processes and institutions in the management of resources and operations
• financing the public sector (sources, financial management, accountability and financial reporting)
• management and development of people within organisations, human resource management, human resource development and change management
• the uses and limitations of quantitative and qualitative research methods for providing information and evaluating options in an uncertain organisational environment
• the development, management and exploitation of information systems and their impact on organisations
• the use of relevant communication and information technologies and applications in public sector management within a global knowledge-based economy

You will study:

• Strategic Public Management and Leading Effective Change
• Dissertation/Major Project (Masters in Public Administration)
• Comparative Public Policy and Public Administration or Public Management

alongside one option from:

• Contemporary Security in International Relations: Providers and Challenges
• From Security to Risk: European International Relations In The 21st Century
• Nation and Identity
• Negotiation and Lobbying in the EU: A Simulation Game
• Practice-Based Knowledge in British Public Administration
• Work Related Learning/Independent Learning

Please note that units may be subject to change.

For part-time students a number of distance learning management units are available in addition to a work-based learning unit, which allows you to achieve credit for study or a project undertaken in the workplace.

Credit for prior learning may be awarded, provided that the course studied relates to the Portsmouth MPA curriculum.

Programme Assessment

You will be taught using a variety of lectures, seminars, tutorials, student presentations, visiting speakers and structured visits to public sector organisations. International students will have a full portfolio of activities that will include English language classes, visits to public organisations and structured advice on how to develop their academic performance.

All students receive an induction to our library and how to use our electronic sources of information. Each student will have a personal tutor, as well as the support of an extensive system of student services.

These include work-related assignments, extended essays, examinations, assessed presentations, reports, completion of logs and a dissertation or extended piece of work-related research culminating in a management report.

Student Destinations

The course delivers transferable lifelong skills that you will be able to apply to complex issues, both systematically and creatively. This will improve your capabilities and enable you to work with self-direction and originality, as well as help you contribute to public administration and society at large.

Fees and funding

Qualification and course duration

MPA

MPA

Further details of qualification

1 year full time distance learning, 2 years part time distance learning