The MA – Public Management is a two-year, part-time programme that combines instruction in key subjects in public management with an opportunity for students to research and write about a specific topic in the public management field. The programme aims to raise the level of analysis of Irish public management and to develop more efficient and resourceful public sector managers.
On completing the first year of the programme, students receive the interim award of a Postgraduate Diploma in Public Management. Six modules are covered in the first year, three before Chirstmas and three after. Modules include economics, human resource management, organisation and strategy, and research methods.
The second year of the course is devoted to the preparation of a dissertation on a topic of partiuicular relevance to a student's professional life. Working under the guidance of an IPA supervisor, students apply the ideas and principles they encountered in their first year to an agreed public management issue. In so doing, they obtain significant, transferable competencies and skills in research and critical analysis.
The research methods module that students take in the first year helps prepare them for the dissertation phase.