Master of Public Affairs

Through the Master of Public Affairs (MPA) degree program, young professionals and new college graduates learn the skills needed to transform an interest in public affairs into serious careers. The multidisciplinary faculty are nationally recognized experts in public policy analysis, public management and administration, and specialized policy fields that include social and poverty policy, education policy, health policy, environmental policy, economic policy, and policy analysis.

With rigorous professional training across several disciplines, La Follette School MPA graduates take up positions as managers and analysts in government at all levels, in the rapidly growing nonprofit sector, and private firms across the United States.

The Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin – Madison is a highly ranked program that offers domestic and international degrees in public management and policy analysis. Our strength derives from our core faculty and a broader group of faculty affiliates who are part of the internationally renowned social science departments at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Our faculty have international reputations in their academic disciplines, and they have spent the greater part of their careers working on problems of public policy and governance.

Our faculty also have close personal links to local, national, and international policymakers. La Follette prides itself in the continued practice of the Wisconsin Idea, a century-long commitment of the University of Wisconsin to extend its expertise beyond the campus borders to solve the world's problems at large. In the early decades of the 20th century, Wisconsin's great social scientists were inventing and adapting the programs of Social Security, Unemployment Compensation, and Workers Compensation so the general society could benefit from the gains made possible by a rapidly changing free market. These social scientists worked closely with political leaders like Robert M. La Follette to help enact legislation that embodied the best social science research.