What should I expect from this program?
You’ll work toward a 90-credit bachelor’s degree that pairs the general-education foundation of any bachelor’s with a focused core of applied public-administration courses. You can complete the whole program online, and where courses are offered HyFlex, you choose whether to attend in person, join live online, or work on your own time.
Your prior college credits and any credit you earn for work and life experience shape how much you actually need to take, so no two students follow exactly the same path. An academic advisor maps your route at the start, and from there you move through the subject areas below at a pace that fits your job and your life.
What will I study?
Public Budgeting & Financial Management
Build and manage budgets, develop financial plans for a town or agency, and read the documents that drive public decisions. It’s the backbone of the field; nearly every leadership role expects you to understand and defend a budget.
Municipal & Public Administration
Study how government works at the local, state, and regional level — the structures, the people, and the day-to-day operations that keep communities running. This practical through-line ties the whole program together.
Human Resources & Personnel
Learn the people side of public organizations: hiring, managing, and supporting a workforce, and handling personnel issues the right way. Every administrator needs it, whether they run a three-person office or a large department.
Grant Writing & Communication
Write clearly and persuasively, including grant applications that bring real funding into your community. Strong writing earns promotions, and grant skills are in constant demand across towns and nonprofits.
Technology & E-Government
Use the digital tools that increasingly run public administration, such as the systems behind permits, records, payments, and citizen services. As the work modernizes, comfort with these tools is a baseline expectation, not a bonus.
Leadership & Ethics in Public Service
Lead a team, make sound decisions under pressure, and hold to ethical standards when the choices are hard. Public servants answer to the public, which raises the stakes on every call, and it’s where experience and education reinforce each other.
Working with the Public & Elected Officials
Navigate the political and human side of the work, communicating with residents, balancing competing interests, and working with elected boards. These relationships often decide whether good policy actually gets done.
What’s my path through the program?
The program is designed to move you efficiently from where you are now to a finished degree. You’ll build on the general-education foundation of a bachelor’s degree while moving through the applied public-administration subject areas above, so the skills accumulate in a way that connects back to real work.
Because it’s built for adults, the path is flexible. Your prior credits and any credit-for-prior-learning award shape how much you need and how quickly you can finish, with at least 30 credits earned at UMA. An academic advisor maps out your specific route at the start, taking your transcript, experience, and goals into account. And whatever path you take, every credit transfers into the full 121-credit Public Administration degree if you later decide to continue.