World-class online learning and leading for human well-being
Welcome to the all-online Penn Global Master of Public Administration program—the Penn G-MPA!
Penn is an Ivy League school located in historic Philadelphia. Penn is consistently ranked among the top US universities and is often ranked first in many fields.
The Penn G-MPA is a premier, individualized professional degree program that you can pursue either full-time or part-time. All ten Penn G-MPA courses are offered each fall semester and each spring semester.
So, earn your degree in as little as one year (over two consecutive semesters) or in as many as three years (over five or six semesters).
As a Penn G-MPA student, you learn from world-class scholars, receive specialized academic advising, meet distinguished leaders, and graduate into Penn’s extraordinary global alumni network!
The Penn G-MPA is designed especially for academically select and highly qualified present and future leaders in government, nonprofit, and business organizations who wish to hone their problem-solving skills and go on to make a real difference in improving human well-being locally, nationally, and globally.
The “G” in the Penn G-MPA is alive throughout our exciting ten-course curriculum. All Penn G-MPA students are proficient in English as well as in at least one other language. Students in each course have up to three individual academic advising sessions (two required, one optional) and two group sessions with the course’s lead faculty instructor (both optional).
In addition, each semester, each enrolled student, whether taking as few as two or as many as five courses, is invited to five optional special discussion forums with distinguished global leaders.
As a Penn G-MPA student, you develop and deepen skills in collaborative leadership, public management, economics, data analysis, and ethical reasoning while becoming immersed in real-world cases on topics ranging from eldercare in Asia to public health in Africa to homelessness and housing in the Americas, Asia, and Africa.
Your problem-solving learning culminates in a capstone paper. The capstone paper is written in conjunction with one of the courses taken during your final semester. In consultation with an academic adviser, you select one of three capstone paper topics supplied by the lead faculty instructor. You select your topic in week six and submit the paper in week fourteen. The capstone paper is based on primary and secondary research conducted in English and one other language in which you are proficient.
Blending rigorous academic analytics with practical problem-solving skills, your Penn G-MPA’s world-class, multilingual faculty brings together diverse and distinguished national and global leaders to address major problems affecting human well-being.
The Penn G-MPA enables you to earn your graduate professional degree in as little as one year (two consecutive semesters) or as many as three years (five or six semesters). During your time in the program, you will:
- Complete an orientation that introduces you to faculty, staff, and other students while addressing all aspects of the program, from its overarching “collaboration across sectors” and “strategic analysis” pedagogy to its particular academic policies and protocols
- Take and complete ten all-online, asynchronous courses
- Receive synchronous online course advising and faculty mentoring
- Participate at your option in special synchronous seminars featuring boundary-spanning, problem-solving global leaders in the government, nonprofit, and business sectors
- Complete an intellectually challenging, skills-stretching capstone research paper (when you are in the final semester of the program)
- Come to Penn the week before May graduation, at your option, to meet the G-MPA faculty and staff in person and participate in special sessions featuring experts on global affairs
