UC Irvine now offers Master of Public Administration degree program
The University of California, Irvine is now the only school in the UC system and one of two R-1 research universities in the state to offer a Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree program.
Applications are now being accepted for the two-year, online professional program that aims to develop leaders in the management of public and nonprofit organizations, according to MPA Director Nicola Ulibarri, an associate professor in the Department of Urban Planning & Public Policy.
Despite having launched no announcements or advertising campaigns on behalf of the new UC Irvine MPA, word is already reaching prospective students.
“I've had a number of conversations with people who have found the program through the admissions page or Google searches,” Ulibarri says. “Overall, people are quite excited about having a program like this in Orange County, and it having online flexibility so they can keep working but also get a chance to connect on campus.”
The idea of launching an MPA at UC Irvine came when leaders of the School of Social Ecology were “trying to think of a new degree program that would really allow us to capitalize on the strengths of our department,” Ulibarri explained.
“We recognized there’s no other Master of Public Administration in the UC system and that within California very few have a strength really focusing on environmental and urban sustainability,” she says. “Since that is the core of what our department does, we decided this would be a great contribution and addition to the UC system.”
Geared toward potential managers or executives at or interested in positions with nonprofit or local, state or federal government organizations, “our MPA is really homing in on how leaders can navigate their organizations through times of environmental and social change,” says Ulibarri, who is the also the director of UC Irvine’s Master of Public Policy program.
Considering the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration lists 210 accredited MPA programs at 196 institutions, including several at Cal State campuses, Ulibarri was asked what her elevator pitch would be to a prospect looking at UC Irvine’s MPA program.
“If you are within California, we are only one of two research universities that is offering an MPA,” she says. “The other one is USC, and we have much, much lower prices. Also, we are providing this unique focus on navigating times of change and turmoil. We are focused on urban systems and environmental systems. It’s a new program, so that is a great benefit in terms of the students, who will get to kind of shape the types of opportunities and curricula that we offer, because they will really have direct connections with us versus older programs.”
Not sold yet? The director provided another great asset UC Irvine’s MPA packs.
“Even though we are a new program, our school has a very vast alumni network working in the public and nonprofit sector from our other master’s degrees and from our Ph.D. programs,” Ulibarri says. “As a student, you know you’re not entering a blank space. We have this great network that students can draw on.”
She has a long-term goal of getting the UC Irvine MPA program accredited, but the more immediate concern will be selecting the first cohort and welcoming those students for a mandatory one-week residency on campus in September.
Want to be one of them? Start here: https://mpa.soceco.uci.edu.
– Matt Coker