Master of Public Administration (MPA)

Course Overview

The Master of Public Administration programme which was introduced in 1988, is one of the pioneering Master’s programmes at PIM as well as in Sri Lanka, focusing on the senior officers in the public sector. This programme caters not only to the public sector officers based in Colombo, but also to officers from around Sri Lanka.

Since 1988, PIM has produced not only Ministry Secretaries, Additional Secretaries and Commissioner Generals, but also Majors General, Brigadiers, Commodores and Wing Commanders in the tri forces, Medical Doctors, and other Professionals. The ample knowledge, skills and confidence, they have gained from the PIM’s MPA programme has immensely helped them to climb the ladder and hold such apex positions in the public sector, outperforming the others and peers in the sector. In other words, the PIM MPA provides distinctive competences to its learning partners. The testimonials given by distinguished alumni from the public sector demonstrate these success stories.

The curriculum which evolves with the emerging requirements of the public sector, is designed upon consultation of all stakeholders with their valuable inputs and insights periodically. Hence the knowledge, application of knowledge to the given scenario, skill development, and ability to overcome challenges in the public sector are imparted through the programme, and these are reinforced through real life cases and examples to make informed, rational decisions under different circumstances.

MPA Learning Goals

PIM MPA graduates will be able to:

1. Recognize the key knowledge, skills and attitudes at local and global level, demonstrate critical awareness of current issues in the field of public administration.
2. Reflect with critical thinking, systematic and creative analysis and use appropriate techniques to make sound judgments in solving problems related to public administration.
3. Reach relevant public and private organizations through networking and team participation and communicate decisions clearly to specialist and non-specialist groups.
4. Realize the importance of economic and ecological concerns and the humane aspects of public administration and demonstrate self-direction and originality in tackling and solving problems.
5. Reinforce professionalism, integrity and ethics in being conscious about values when decisions are made in planning and implementing public administration tasks.

The above objectives are linked to the learning objectives of each module.