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SPEA

Graduate

Student Learning Outcomes
Master of Public Affairs (MPA)

General Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of the MPA degree program, students shall:

  • Demonstrate the ability to lead and manage public and nonprofit organizations.
  • Demonstrate the ability to participate in and contribute to the policy process.
  • Demonstrate the ability to analyze, synthesize, think critically, solve problems and make decisions.
  • Demonstrate the ability to articulate and apply a public service perspective.
  • Demonstrate the ability to communicate and interact productively with a diverse and changing workforce and citizenry.

Concentrations will have the above general outcomes plus the additional ones listed below.

Criminal Justice Concentration
Upon completion of this concentration, students will:

  • Identify and critically analyze current criminal justice policies, using available research, and discuss the strengths and limitations of various approaches.
  • Communicate effectively within a complex and diverse criminal justice or public safety environment.
  • Rigorously analyze criminal justice and public safety policies using a variety of tools, including quantitative research methods and statistical techniques.
  • Define crime, discuss and evaluate major theories of crime, and critically discuss criminal justice system and non-criminal justice programs and policies that respond to crime.

Policy Analysis Concentration
Upon completion of this concentration, students shall:

  • Demonstrate the ability to rigorously analyze public policies using a variety of tools, including microeconomics, institutional analysis, and other common public affairs models of policy development, implementation and evaluation using quantitative, qualitative and mixed approaches.
  • Demonstrate experience in the practical conduct and communication of results of policy analysis.

Public Management Concentration
Upon completion of this concentration, students should:

  • Demonstrate the ability to evaluate management practices, using a variety of outcome measurements to assess efficacy, efficiency and economic costs and benefits.
  • Demonstrate experience in the conduct of management tasks, and the ability to communicate effectively with the appropriate constituencies.

Nonprofit Management Concentration
Upon completion of this concentration, students will:

  • Demonstrate the managerial and policy skills to effectively undertake leadership roles in the nonprofit sector.
  • Demonstrate the managerial and policy skills to effectively undertake leadership roles in the public or private sectors as they apply to working with organizations in the nonprofit sector.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the philanthropic tradition in the broadest sense (voluntary action for the public good).