Master of Public Administration

The Cornell Institute for Public Affairs (CIPA) is a unit of the College of Human Ecology. CIPA offers a two-year program of graduate professional studies leading to the Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree. The MPA curriculum fosters an understanding of the political and administrative processes through which issues, problems, and policies are formulated; knowledge of the economic and fiscal basis for government action in a market economy; analytical tools for designing and evaluating programs and assessing policy implications; insights into the behavior of public, private, and nonprofit organizations and their management; and sensitivity to the moral and ethical dimensions of public/nonprofit management and public policy issues. CIPA graduate students (known as CIPA Fellows) also develop leadership and professional skills essential to career advancement.

The two-year master of public administration (MPA) degree program requires a minimum of 16 semester-length courses; CIPA Fellows must take a minimum of four courses per semester for four semesters. Although the MPA program offers a basic structure for study, each CIPA Fellow has flexibility to design a program based on his or her specific area of interest.