EMPA Student Experience

Co-production of the Public Good

Cohort Learning: Classroom and peer centered discussions are designed to capture and share the knowledge of cohort members

Practice-Centered Learning: The program uses the organizational and work challenges of participants to apply leadership theories and practices.

Maximizing Learning for All

High Level of Student Support: The program provides students with high levels of personal support in registering, purchasing books, accessing parking and making adjustments to accommodate “surprises” in their personal and work life. The tuition and fees of the program have been set to take this high level of support into account.

Emphasis on Responsiveness, Equity and Mutual Collective Responsibility: The faculty are experienced practitioners who are skilled and committed to meeting the different learning needs and backgrounds of students. There is an emphasis on the collective responsibility of each member of the cohort for the success of one another, as well as a responsibility to actively engage in perspectives different from their own to contribute to the safe, welcoming and diverse learning communities in and outside the classroom.

Integrated Curricular Experience to Develop Student Competencies.  

Students experience an integrated sequence of courses designed to cultivate the competencies to professionally contribute, supervise, and lead in complex and “shared-power” settings.

Students in the EMPA program will master the following thirteen (13) competencies by graduation to effectively fulfill their organization’s mission, to enhance citizen engagement, and to promote democratic governance.

EMPA Mission Specific Core Competencies

1. Demonstrate what is required to lead at the individual, group/team, organization, and community levels. 
2. Demonstrate what is required to lead within a variety of different structures of authority, including local government, nonprofits, state, national, and international contexts. 
3. Demonstrate creativity in using a variety of leadership approaches to match a given leadership challenge.

MPA Core Competencies

1. Articulate and exemplify the ethics, values, responsibilities, obligations and social roles of a member of the public service profession. 
2. Identify and apply economic, financial, legal, organizational, political, social, and ethical theories and frameworks to the practice of public service leadership, management and policy. 
3. Respond to and engage collaboratively with diverse local and global cultures and communities to address challenges in the public interest. 
4. Identify and engage with the key elements of the public policy process. 
5. Employ appropriate qualitative and quantitative techniques to investigate, monitor and manage human, fiscal, technological, information, physical, and other resource use. 
6. Create and manage systems and processes to assess and improve organizational performance. 
7. Conceptualize, analyze, and develop creative and collaborative solutions to challenge in public policy, leadership and management. 
8. Assess challenges and explore solutions to advance cross-sectoral and inter-jurisdictional cooperation in public programs and services. 
9. Demonstrate verbal and written communication skills as a professional and through interpersonal interactions in groups and in society. 
10. Think critically and self-reflectively about emerging issues concerning public service management and policy.

Unique Field-based Immersion in Transformational Cross-Cultural Settings

The program uses its field trip courses in Washington D.C. and to a foreign location to broaden and deepen the contextual and cultural leadership competence of students in the program. These are designed as full immersion experiences with engaging on-the-ground learning, not simply “listening to talking heads.”

Two cross-cultural field experiences that transform your understanding of equity, justice, and what counts for “good governance”. 

Capstone Project to Advance Applied Learning

At the completion of their program of study, students choose an organizational challenge to integrate and apply their leadership knowledge and advance their professional development aspirations.

The Executive MPA aspires to develop informed, reflective, ethical leaders. The capstone is a critical part of this process offering you a guided opportunity to analyze a policy or administrative problem in a sustained way and then to propose detailed solutions to that problem.

While many graduate programs require a thesis that reflects specific intellectual accomplishments in the degree program, the EMPA capstone is different. It aims for a synthesis of academic, practical and personal perspectives on your career to date, on what you have learned in the EMPA program, and about what kind of leader you want to be in the future.

Students will work one on one with our Capstone Project Manager to develop their project throughout the EMPA program. During the last term, students will finalize their paper summarizing their project and present it to fellow cohort members, EMPA faculty, and community stakeholders.

EMPA Program Accreditation

With the Department of Public Administration, the Center for Public Service's Executive MPA Program has been successfully accredited by the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA) for the period of 2013 to 2020. You may find the EMPA Accreditation Report here.

Public Affairs Program and Specialty Rankings for 2022:

#49 in Best Public Affairs Programs (tie)
#17 in Local Government Management
#10 in Urban Policy (tie)

What are our graduation and employment rates?

As required by our accreditation with the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA), the EMPA program maintains statistics on student graduation and employment rates. 

Graduation rates

100% of our graduate students are working professionals. The table below shows student progress toward graduation.

Employment rates

The most recent employment statistics reflect the number of students who were employed in the profession within 6 months of graduation. Employment is broken out by employment sector. In order to match data in the graduation rate table, data is listed below by the year students started the program. For example, 2016 cohort column is data for students who started the program in Fall 2016 and graduated in Spring 2018.