In July of 2025, I took over (or became the first, depending on the accounting) MPA director at NIU. My role is to run the academic side of the house; my department chair runs the university side. As such, I spend a lot of time thinking about how our program (and MPA programs, generally) can best train current and future local government leaders. This post is some of those thoughts. As I begin to walk through this, I need to make it clear that none of this is an official declaration of the intentions of NIU–it’s simply my musings on what I see as needs and potentially how we can solve them.
One degree, many audiences
One attribute of the MPA, as a degree, is it is one degree with many audiences.1 In my own program, this includes many pre-career students, or those students right out of their undergraduate training, in more or less a cohort-model. They come in as a group in the fall, take two years to complete their studies (while also engaging in a 1/2 time internship, a unique attribute of the NIU MPA), and graduate into bigger and better things.2
The second audience is mid-career folks (we define that as 2+ years of experience, but this is typically 2-5 years in MPA programs), but these are really several audiences in somewhat different circumstances. The first are folks in the profession at a middle-ish manager level–program directors, senior management analysts, etc, but importantly, closer to the beginning of their career than the end–that don’t have an MPA. They’re often specialized in the sense that they’re embedded in an operational department (i.e., not in the central administrative office) doing a specific task. They know their operational field (and usually have an undergraduate degree in that area), but often come to us to gain more general management training. This audience has been the mid-career bread and butter for MPA programs since the beginning.
The second group of mid-career folks are much more senior, often department heads that could have advanced degrees in their specialty (engineering, accounting/finance, etc) but don’t have an MPA. Many of these folks see the MPA as a route to being the city/town/village manager, perhaps that job description even requires an MPA. These students are not devoid of management skills, clearly they have some because they’re doing the job. What they seek is a broader perspective than their relatively narrow, department view. They know they don’t know enough about the other functions of their government and are trying to get a better handle on all the things a city manager responsible for.
A third group, that the MPA typically doesn’t capture but I think is important to include here, are current city managers. They might want an educational refresher, but already have an MPA (or other advanced degree) and have no practical need for an entire degree.
Just reading through these incredibly diverse audiences, it’s clear that one, monolithic degree program will struggle to serve all the varied student needs. Most MPA programs, more or less reinforced by the accrediting body NASPAA, are designed to most effectively service the pre-career and very early mid-career student. That leaves the other mid-career student archetypes in a bit of a bind.
MPA program design interlude
To understand why the MPA doesn’t really work for all the potential audiences, it’s helpful to understand how the MPA is designed. NASPAA, the MPA accrediting body, gives some flexibility in program design, but not much, so this largely applies to all MPA programs.
- There is a core of classes, typically 4-6, that are required for all students. Using NASPAA’s language, these classes are designed to deliver the universal competencies or learning outcomes that all MPA students should have. The important aspect is that all students have to take these classes, so they are largely designed for students with the least prior knowledge (the definition of least prior knowledge varies by program).
- Some number of specializations, collections of electives around a theme, that vary by the student’s program of study. Some smaller programs have a single specialization, while others might have several. These allow for customization.
The core classes are largely the problematic ones for those students other than pre-career or early mid-career. They’re often pitched at too low of a level for senior managers, leading to a feeling that they’re taking classes that aren’t very relevant to them.
Where does this leave us?
We have several current or potential audiences who want or need local government management training. And we have a degree program that only effectively serves those audiences closest to the beginning of their careers. This requires modifying the existing degree or coming up with a new one. These are things I’ll discuss in part II.