Welcome to the MPA Program at ECU!
Our degree program is designed to prepare you for a rewarding career in public service or, if you have already made this important decision, to provide you with additional skills and knowledge necessary for public sector employment.
The Master of Public Administration (MPA) program at ECU is housed within the Department of Political Science and is fully accredited by the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA). Our MPA program is a 45-semester hour degree program, with 24 hours of core courses, 15 hours in a concentration of your choice, 3 hours of internship experience, and 3 hours devoted to an MPA Professional paper.
Students may choose their concentrations from among the following or may request a personalized one providing adequate courses are available. Several additional concentrations, including one with a focus on non-profit management is in the works.
Economic Development
Environmental Policy Analysis and Administration
Health Administration
Human Resource Management
Management of Health Care Non-Profits
Planning
Public Budgeting and Finance
Public Policy
Security Studies
State and Local Administration
The bulk of our classes are currently offered in a face-face format either from 3:00-6:00 pm or 6:30-9:30 pm Monday-Thursdays. Several courses are also offered each term online. We have seven full-time and several part-time faculty members teaching in the program.
The MPA program employs a problem-solving approach to public management issues and the analysis of public policy. It is designed to broaden your understanding of economic, political, methodological, legal, and social issues related to the management of public policy and management while also allowing you to develop expertise in an area of specialization. Since most the courses are offered in the evening or online, the MPA program is suited both for the part-time employed student and the full-time student. At this time, however, one cannot complete the degree wholly online.
We have approximately fifty students in the program each year, with a roughly even blend of part-time and full-time enrollees. The MPA degree can be completed in two calendar years of full-time study if one enrolls as a full-time student. It is composed of 45 semester hours of course work built around a core curriculum, a specialization in an area of emphasis, professional experience in a public or nonprofit agency, and an MPA professional paper. All of these are described in the documents linked to this site.
In addition to the Graduate School's online application form itself, applicants need to submit GRE scores, three letters of reference, a statement of purpose, and official transcript from all undergraduate and graduate institutions which you have attended. The MPA Program also requests student complete a Personal Data Sheet (see attached) that gives us some additional information beyond the university's application form. The application for admission to the ECU Graduate School: http://www.ecu.edu/gradschool/
The department offers several graduate assistantships and can offer an out-of-state tuition remission to exceptional non-North Carolina residents. The preferred application deadline for fall is June 1st, although if one is seeking a graduate assistantship then the application should be in by April 1st. A full-time graduate assistantship currently pays $7,500 for the fall and spring terms. Individuals seeking an assistantship or an out-of-state tuition remission should apply as early as possible.
Decisions about one's acceptance into the program are made by the MPA faculty on a rolling basis as soon as a complete application is received from the Graduate School. Official notification of admission decisions are made by the Graduate School. Notification of assistantships and out-of-state tuition remissions are made by the MPA Program Director.
This page and the attached pages present a great deal of important information about the MPA program. We hope you find them useful. The MPA Overview is a PowerPoint presentation on the program that covers a great deal of information about the degree and the MPA Handbook goes into even greater detail on the program and its requirements. These documents, however, cannot answer all possible questions you might have. Therefore, if you have additional questions about ECU, the MPA program, or Public Administration as a field of study, please contact the Political Science Department or me.
Also, check out the personal web pages of the MPA faculty; they contain information about the faculty's research, service, and teaching areas, including sample syllabi for courses each of us typically teach.
We are proud of our program and would like to hear from those interested in the MPA program. We promise to respond quickly to any messages you might send. Thank you for your interest!
Dr. Robert J Thompson, Director, MPA Director
Department of Political Science
Brewster A101
East Carolina University
Greenville, NC 27858-4353
252-328-5686 (office)
252-328-4134 (fax)
thompsonro@ecu.edu
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