The Certificate in Public Management is a focused 15 credit hour program of study in public management for those students interested in a less extensive course of study at the graduate level. The certificate program is flexible enough to be adapted to the needs of precareer and in-service individuals and can accommodate people interested in a wide variety of public careers ranging from social work to criminal justice to health administration.

The certificate is ideal for those persons in public and community organizations or agencies who wish to supplement their primary fields of professional or technical competence, persons who are changing from professional or technical roles to managerial roles in the public service, career employees of public and community agencies who are interested in studying a sequence of core courses in public management, or students who wish to explore the field of public management before committing themselves to an extended degree program.

Candidates with a bachelor's degree are admitted to the program from a variety of educational backgrounds. 

Required Courses (15 cr.)

• SPEA V502 Public Management (3 cr.)
• SPEA V560 Public Finance and Budgeting (3 cr.)
• SPEA V561 Public Human Resources Management (3 cr.)
• Two additional SPEA graduate public affairs courses are also required ( 6 cr.)
• If students are interested in furthering their education in the MPA program, students should plan to take the following classes as electives:
  • V500 Quantitative Tools for Public Affairs (3cr.)
  • V517 Public Management Economics(3 cr.)