The Master of Public Affairs (MPA) requires 42 semester hours. As an interdisciplinary program, courses are offered by the School of Planning and Public Affairs and the Department of Political Science, as well as from other units such as Management and Organizations in the Tippie College of Business, Strategic Communications in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications, and the Larned Waterman Nonprofit Resource Center in the College of Law.

Required Curriculum

8 core courses (20 s.h.)
1 internship (1, 2, or 3 s.h.)
5 electives (minimum 15 s.h., including 9 s.h. taken within a concentration)
two-semester capstone project (4 s.h.)

Students may select from concentrations in Public and Nonprofit Management or Public Policy. For a full list of concentration courses and course numbers, students should refer to the Public Affairs Student Manual section on Areas of Concentration.

For the capstone project students will engage in analysis of a contemporary public policy problem plus development of recommended action steps. This will be done in tandem with the University’s Iowa Initiative for Sustainable Communities (IISC) which for has been providing public consultation to communities in Iowa for over a decade.

Typical Schedule for Full-Time Students