Triangle

Course overview

Can you see yourself as a confident leader or manager working in civil service or a public sector organisation? Maybe you are already in the sector and want to enhance your knowledge and develop your career. 

You could end up working for the government, in NGOs or consultancy, looking at major issues affecting the population such as climate change, food and water supplies, public health, and national security. Find out more about possible career paths on our alumni profiles pages

On our Public Administration MPA course, you'll build a portfolio of practical, work-ready skills thanks to our varied assessment methods. These skills include:

  • leadership and management
  • financial and strategic planning 
  • delivering services
  • influencing and negotiating
  • personal reflection

Explore and examine current global issues including inequality, migration, social justice and environmentalism. You'll get to work with real-life case studies of public sector organisations, and understand the challenges faced in public sector administration and how to design and deliver policies to help communities. 

Our curriculum has been designed in collaboration with students, covering a range of themes and industry relevant topics. Delve into a variety of core and optional modules such as Leading and Managing People in Public Sector Organisations, Administration and Governance - From Concepts to Practice, and Strategic and Financial Planning in the Public Sector. 

You'll also benefit by learning from staff who are not only active researchers but who have practitioner experience too, working with governments, community organisations, and international and supranational organisations . 

Why choose this course?

Learn from experts

whose research has influenced public and social policy

89% of our research

ranked as world-leading or internationally excellent

Gain real experience

by applying for internships and placements through our faculty placements programme

Co-created curriculum

This course offers a co-created curriculum with students and alumni so it is inclusive and relevant to the workplace

Course content

Across the autumn and spring semesters, you will take 120 credits of core and optional modules.

Dissertation

You will complete a 60-credit dissertation over the summer, and an appropriate dissertation supervisor will oversee your progress.

Modules

Core modules

Administration and Governance: From Concepts to Practice

This module focuses on the various actors and institutions involved in the policy making process and their roles in different forms of governance. It addresses the design of policies, from deciding on the need for a policy (problem definition) through making the policy happen (implementation). Relationships between state and non-state actors and between state actors in multi-level governance structures will be discussed.

Exploring Policy: Key Theories and Debate

This module presents the context that forms the operating environment of public and social policy.

It discusses key concepts and theories that shape debates about policy, and presents critical perspectives on mainstream assumptions about policy.

Theories and perspectives include socialism, neo-liberalism, Marxism, feminism and environmentalism; key concepts include equality and social justice.

Learn how to:

  • recognise and debate key theories and influences involved in policy making, operations and decisions
  • understand and challenge mainstream assumptions, and present alternative perspectives
  • collaborate with your classmates through group work
  • find, summarise and synthesise various sources from diverse perspectives to inform thinking and arguments
Research Methods: Practical Skills for Policy Research

This module focuses on the skills you need to carry out policy research.

It covers research design and methods that are appropriate to answer research questions about any element of policy, from its inception to its application.

Using these diverse research skills and methods will help you develop a research proposal for your dissertation project. 

Final Project

This module is the final assessment of the programme, and is a culmination of all the learning that you will have done over the year.

The learning process and personal development as a reflective and continuous learner is expressed in a reflective diary that you will compile over the course of the year, with support from your personal tutor.

The knowledge and academic skills that you have gained are expressed in your dissertation, with support from your dissertation supervisor.

The dissertation is a sustained piece of research that is entirely student-driven, including setting your own research questions, deciding on your research design and methods, and carrying out the research and the dissertation writing.

Optional modules

You must choose at least one of these, or can do both:

Leading and Managing People in Public Sector Organisations

This module focuses on how people within public sector organisations operate. It presents theories and concepts that explain difference perceptions of leadership and management, and how these influence practices to improve people’s performance and motivation. The module addresses the role of leaders and managers in the development of the organisation and its culture, as well as management approached to change and conflict within organisations.

Strategic and Financial Planning in the Public Sector

This modules presents theories and models of strategic and financial planning in the public sector and the role of a range of stakeholders in these processes. It discusses sources of income and the budget cycle and how financial decision-making and controls enable organisations to respond to changes in their operating environment. The module addresses issues such as innovation and organisational learning, and how they contribute to organisations’ ability to deal with external challenges, such as health or environmental crises.

You must choose one of these:

Delivering Public Services

This module focuses on the practical elements of public service delivery, and how they are affected by the involvement of a range of different stakeholders.

Salient roles and relationships are those between different levels of government, between service users and providers, and between providers from the public, private and third sector.

Key issues are inequality of access to and use of services and assessing and improving the quality of services.

Economic Policies and Government Ideologies 

This module focuses on the influence of government ideologies on economic policy decisions.

It discusses the tension between social and private benefits, the relative benefits of supply-side and demand-side economics, and how profit incentives lead to market failure in the provision of social benefit.

Topics addressed include the balance between short- and long-term interests and decisions about spending that are made at various levels of government on services such as housing and welfare.

You can choose one of these, or none if you've chosen the above two:

International Organisations and Global Governance

This module will equip you with the knowledge and understanding of the role international governmental organisations (such as the World Bank, World Health Organization, IMF, OECD) play in global governance. You will study how international organisations compete with each other and also cooperate in different fields of public policy to influence the global debate, shift ideas, set the agenda and formulate policy.

You will learn how they prepare, guide, and supervise international treaties on public policy issues and how they direct finance and implement public policy projects. You will learn about the inherent features of the major international organisations and how these determine the approach they take to influence policies. 

Welfare and Social Policy Around the World

This module focuses on the welfare social policies in countries around the world.

Using a Social Problem framework, it discusses how problems that occur at local level are influenced by and influence problems at national and global levels.

Study how past and current colonial practices influence the persistence of social problems, and countries’ responses to them.

Topics vary widely and can include health and social care, housing, education, pension provision, needs of ageing societies.

The above is a sample of the typical modules we offer but is not intended to be construed and/or relied upon as a definitive list of the modules that will be available in any given year. Modules (including methods of assessment) may change or be updated, or modules may be cancelled, over the duration of the course due to a number of reasons such as curriculum developments or staffing changes. Please refer to the module catalogue for information on available modules. This content was last updated on Tuesday 24 September 2024.

Due to timetabling availability, there may be restrictions on some module combinations.

Learning and assessment

How you will learn

  • Lectures
  • Seminars
  • Tutorials
  • Supervision

How you will be assessed

  • Essay
  • Reports
  • Dissertation
  • Group presentation
  • Debates
  • Reflective journals
  • Poster presentation

Modules are typically assessed based on various forms of coursework.

Contact time and study hours

You will typically have one weekly two-hour lecture, and one weekly hour-long seminar, for each module over a 10-week teaching semester. Most students take three or four modules each semester. Each 10 credits represent approximately 100 hours of work, and for each module, approximately 30 hours will be taught.

Entry requirements

All candidates are considered on an individual basis and we accept a broad range of qualifications. The entrance requirements below apply to 2025 entry.

Undergraduate degree2:1 (or international equivalent) in any discipline, or 2:2 (or international equivalent) in any discipline plus one year working experience in national or local government, or public sector or third/voluntary sector

Applying

We can consider formal or voluntary work experience (including placements and regular volunteering) in the public sector (for example, government departments, government-related organisations, public organisations at all levels) and voluntary sector (for example, registered charities and non-government organisations etc).

Reference letters will be required to demonstrate work experience. The reference letter should contain details on the job/role title, job description/responsibilities and period of employment/voluntary work. For voluntary work, further information is required on the frequency of participation (for example, once a week) and time spent on the role.

Our step-by-step guide covers everything you need to know about applying.

How to apply

Fees

Qualification MA PGDip
Home / UK £12,750 £7,900
International £30,750 £19,067

Additional information for international students

If you are a student from the EU, EEA or Switzerland, you may be asked to complete a fee status questionnaire and your answers will be assessed using guidance issued by the UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA) .

These fees are for full-time study. If you are studying part-time, you will be charged a proportion of this fee each year (subject to inflation).

Additional costs

All students will need at least one device to approve security access requests via Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). We also recommend students have a suitable laptop to work both on and off-campus. For more information, please check the equipment advice.

As a student on this course, you should factor some additional costs into your budget, alongside your tuition fees and living expenses.

You should be able to access most of the books you'll need through our libraries, though you may wish to purchase your own copies or more specific titles.

Funding

There are many ways to fund your postgraduate course, from scholarships to government loans.

We also offer a range of international masters scholarships for high-achieving international scholars who can put their Nottingham degree to great use in their careers.

Check our guide to find out more about funding your postgraduate degree.

Postgraduate funding

Careers

We offer individual careers support for all postgraduate students.

Expert staff can help you research career options and job vacancies, build your CV or résumé, develop your interview skills and meet employers.

Each year 1,100 employers advertise graduate jobs and internships through our online vacancy service. We host regular careers fairs, including specialist fairs for different sectors.

International students who complete an eligible degree programme in the UK on a student visa can apply to stay and work in the UK after their course under the Graduate immigration route. Eligible courses at the University of Nottingham include bachelors, masters and research degrees, and PGCE courses.

Graduate destinations

You could end up working for the government, in NGOs or consultancy, looking at major issues affecting the population such as climate change, food and water supplies, public health, and national security.

Career progression

89.3% of postgraduates from the School of Sociology and Social Policy secured graduate level employment or further study within 15 months of graduation. The average annual salary for these graduates was £28,886.

HESA Graduate Outcomes 2019/20 data published in 2022. The Graduate Outcomes % is derived using The Guardian University Guide methodology. The average annual salary is based on graduates working full-time within the UK.

Two masters graduates proudly holding their certificates
" This has definitely given my CV more clout. It has broadened my knowledge and helped me improve transferable skills such as communication skills gained through writing essays and presentations. "
Jennifer Beturin, MPA Public Administration

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This content was last updated on Tuesday 24 September 2024. Every effort has been made to ensure that this information is accurate, but changes are likely to occur given the interval between the date of publishing and course start date. It is therefore very important to check this website for any updates before you apply.