Public Management Certificate

The Public Management Certificate Program begins once a year in January of the Spring Semester.

Students will be required to complete fifteen hours of graduate work and complete a capstone experience. Twelve of the fifteen credit hours will be comprised of courses currently required in the Master of Public Administration degree. Students will earn an additional three credits by enrolling in three one credit courses designed to meet specific technical needs of public managers.

Admission Requirements

To be admitted to the program, you must:

• Have earned an undergraduate degree from a regionally accredited college or university.
• Be currently employed in a public agency at the national, state, or local level or at a nonprofit.
• Enter a cohort that is being sponsored by a government or nonprofit agency.
• Meet Graduate College requirements.
• Be accepted by the Graduate College and the School of Environmental and Public Affairs.
• Provide two letters of recommendation from professors, employers and/or professional colleagues.
• Submit a current resume with your application.

Application Process

• Apply to the Graduate College through the online application system. Be sure to select the certificate in Public Management (rather than the MPA degree) from the list.
• You are required to send official transcripts for all college-level work to the Graduate College.
• Note: Unofficial transcripts can be uploaded and submitted to the Graduate Coordinator in the School of Environmental and Public Affairs (SEPA) for initial evaluation.
• Identify the two people sending letters of recommendation on your behalf. They will, in turn, upload their letters to the Graduate College’s On-line application site. To get this process started, go to the Graduate College’s Application process webpage and click on the RECOMMENDATIONS link at the left side of the page immediately below the Application process links. Then make sure you check “yes” when it asks you about submitting your letters electronically (These can be submitted electronically by the letter writers).
• After the School and Graduate College obligations have been met, the file then goes to the School’s Admission Committee. The Graduate College will then send you an email confirmation with the status of the admission decision.
   

Note: If you complete the required 15 credits with a 3.5 GPA or higher, then you will be able to apply for the MPA program and possibly be accepted without taking the GRE the following spring.
 

Deadlines
Spring semester: Nov. 1
 

Certificate Requirements: 12 Total Credits

Capstone Experience

Certificate program students are required to submit a final project paper that uses knowledge and skills obtained from the course work and applies this information to an organization of their choice. Specific guidelines for the paper may be obtained from the Public Administration Graduate Coordinator.

Relationship to M.P.A. Degree

Students earning the certificate may apply for admission into the Master of Public Administration degree program. If accepted, the fifteen credits earned in the certificate program may be applied to the M.P.A. Additional information about admissions to the M.P.A. can be found on the School of Environmental and Public Affairs web page http://sepa.unlv.edu/admissions/mpa_pa.html.