Find out about your options for postgraduate Public Management qualifications and discover what and how you’ll study.

The MPM is part of a tiered family of qualifications:

• Master of Public Management
• Postgraduate Diploma in Public Management
• Postgraduate Certificate in Public Management

Choose the qualification that suits your career goals, time commitments, and financial situation.

If you are initially accepted for a Certificate or Diploma, you can apply to transfer to the Master’s degree at a later stage.

If you’re working towards a Master of Public Management but can’t complete it for some reason, you may have enough points to be awarded the Certificate or Diploma.

The MPM will give you the skills and capability to understand the theory and practice of public management and boost your performance as a manager.

Your studies will include:

1. Six core courses: you’ll study governance, public sector reform, and strategic and financial management. You’ll also learn about planning and service delivery, human resources, and monitoring and evaluation.
2. Five electives: choose from a variety of courses according to your interests and career goals. Possible subjects include public sector law, economics, policy analysis, politics, or philosophy.
3. A capstone course.

The Diploma programme requires you do four core courses from the MPM and four further approved courses of your choice. Certificate students do four core courses from the MPM.

Customise the Master of Public Management with a specialisation, through electives, in e-Government, Health and Wellbeing, Public Policy, or another subject from the Wellington School of Business and Government.

Core courses are delivered both on-campus and online in a modular format. Typically, you'll attend classes three times a trimester for each course, making it feasible to live outside Wellington and commute for study.

Elective courses are delivered in a variety of modes. Courses also vary in their teaching and learning styles, including in-class lectures, discussions, cases, student presentations, guest presentations, and pre-recorded videos. Assessment varies, including take-home tests, short written exercises (such as blog posts), problem sets, applications, and essays.

Throughout your study, you will enjoy ample opportunities to work on issues of interest to yourself or your employer.

Because of the modular format of the courses, you can fit your study commitments around your work and home life. And if you're struggling at any time, just let us know—we want your study to be a success.

If you are studying full time, you can expect a workload of 40 to 45 hours a week for much of the year.

You can estimate your workload by adding up the number of points you’ll be doing. One point is roughly equal to 10 to 12 hours of work.

Surrounded by Parliament Buildings, government offices, and corporate headquarters, you’ll benefit from the strong links the School of Government maintains with the industry.