Learning and leading for global human well-being
The University of Pennsylvania, known as Penn, is a highly selective and top-ranked Ivy League university that is located on a beautiful urban campus in historic Philadelphia. The Penn International Master of Public Administration (I-MPA) is an exciting, innovative, skills-based graduate degree program that is expressly dedicated to improving global human well-being by professionally educating, nurturing, and networking present and future problem-solving leaders.
The Penn I-MPA takes only one academic year and eight courses to complete. It is an academically cutting-edge cohort model program (all I-MPA degree candidates take all I-MPA courses together and participate in numerous extracurricular learning experiences together) led by a distinctively interdisciplinary, multinational, and multilingual team of world-class scholars and noted leaders in government, business, and the nonprofit sector who teach, advise, mentor, and inspire our students.
I-MPA degree candidates are educationally equipped and professionally empowered through four interlocking program components:
- Curriculum: Eight well-integrated courses that culminate in advanced individual research and writing a capstone paper and a group-organized, class-wide capstone project.
- Languages: Proficiency in English and proficiency in any one or more of the following four languages: Hindi*, Mandarin, Spanish, or Swahili.
- Extracurricular activities: Extracurricular experiences including special events and a distinguished speaker series.
- Advising: Year-long robust, individualized academic advising and professional mentoring.
The I-MPA program starts on August 24, 2024, with new student orientation. Classes for the fall semester start on August 27, 2024, and finish at the end of the spring semester on April 30, 2025.
*The I-MPA program also accepts two related local languages as evidence of language proficiency: Bengali and Urdu.
