东北大学

The Master of Public Administration (MPA) is the management and leadership degree for those seeking to serve the public good. The program seeks to equip its students with skills in policy analysis, program evaluation, research methods, and written and verbal communications. Students have an opportunity to develop competencies in budgeting and human resources, organizational management and leadership, and the interplay between ethics and accountability in a diverse society. Throughout the degree program, students gain career-oriented experience through internships, small group projects, and other interactions with professionals in the field. These experiences are designed to enable the Northeastern MPA graduate to move into a wide array of public and nonprofit sector positions at the local, state, national, and international levels.

Mission Statement

The mission of the MPA program at Northeastern University is to serve the needs of the public affairs community, including students, working professionals, faculty, and researchers, by providing a practice-oriented and research-based graduate educational experience. The faculty pledges the best instruction available in a set of courses designed to integrate theoretical foundations with practical skills. The MPA program will prepare students to be effective in a dynamic and increasingly diverse professional environment. We also commit ourselves to assisting students in every possible way to secure internships, postgraduate employment, and overall career advancement. Students, in turn, are expected to meet high levels of academic excellence combined with ethical and professional integrity. Committed to the ideals of public service and advancing the public interest, we seek students who share the same enthusiasm.

The MPA program offers an optional cooperative education experience (“co-op”) to eligible students. Cooperative education is central to both the Northeastern experience and to the College of Social Sciences and Humanities experiential liberal arts framework. Northeastern’s signature co-op ecosystem provides qualified master's students with six-month work experiences in businesses, nonprofits, and government agencies in Boston and across the United States. Graduate students take their work from campus learning spaces, apply their knowledge outside of the classroom, and then bring knowledge and skills gained in community learning spaces back to our campus learning spaces during the cocurricular experiential integration course.

The Northeastern University MPA program is nationally accredited by NASPAA.