The Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree is the professional degree for the field of public administration and it serves to provide public sector practitioners with an understanding of the inner workings of governmental environments. Our program is the only MPA program nationally accredited by the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA) in the state of Nevada.

Our Mission

The University of Nevada, Las Vegas MPA program aims to enhance communities throughout Nevada and beyond by using its research, teaching, and community service to provide public service professionals with the knowledge, abilities, sensitivity, and values to ethically lead, manage, and collaborate across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors.

Core Competencies

The following core competencies are key to our program. All course content within the MPA program requires students to gain proficiencies in these five competency areas:

• Leading and managing in public governance
• Contributing to the public policy process
• Learning to analyze, synthesize, think critically, solve problems, and make decisions
• Articulating and applying a public service perspective
• Communicating and interacting productively with a diverse and changing workforce and citizenry

Students within the MPA program engage in learning focused on building practical skills to help improve their communities through better leadership and management. Our commitment to building the skills and knowledge of students includes having them engage in applied service-learning projects that not only create unique learning experiences but also benefit the southern Nevada community. This includes actively engaging students in both academic and applied research as part of their program of study in the MPA.

Our goal is to develop our students to ensure their readiness to better serve our community while enhancing their careers.