Master of Public Administration: Analytics

In today’s data-driven environment, managers in high-performing organizations in every sector—business, government, and nonprofit—need to be able to analyze and interpret data and then use that information to implement policies, operations, and programs.

The Master of Public Administration in Analytics program at Stuart School of Business delivers a rigorous, applied curriculum that is focused on developing our students’ skills and expertise in analytics, public policy, and management, so they graduate with a solid foundation for career advancement.

In the M.P.A. in Analytics degree, students will:

• Study strategic management skills, such as planning, leadership, policy implementation, and financial resource management, that are critical to the success of any organization.
• Learn how to use industry-leading analytics techniques to turn data, statistics, and rigorous program evaluation studies into actionable insights that can be used to improve the effectiveness of public and nonprofit programs and policies.

Business and public administration at Illinois Tech have a prestigious history that dates back to the late 1800s, with some of the nation’s first courses in "Family and Consumer Science" (including “Home Economics” and “Household Management”) being offered by the Lewis Institute, Stuart’s original home, and the Institute’s subsequent formation of the Department of Business and Economics in 1926.

Over a period of more than 125 years, building on curricular innovations by Julia A. Beveridge and George N. Carman, and on foundational scholarly works by trailblazing Illinois Tech scholars Herb A. Simon (author of Administrative Behavior, later awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics), Karl Menger (developer of the St. Petersburg paradox in economics) and Abe Sklar (developer of the Copula in financial modeling), the Stuart School of Business has refined education in business disciplines.

A long-standing leader in curricular innovation, in 1990, building on the foundational works of numerous Illinois Tech scholars, and Harold L. Stuart’s own contributions to finance and the broader business community, the Stuart School of Business established quantitative finance as an academic discipline, with a world’s first postgraduate Master’s program in Financial Markets and Trading – a program that highlighted a new model for embedding into a postgraduate academic program the emphases on career readiness and connectedness with the business community, and transformed business school education.

Today, the Stuart School of Business continues to be a frontier innovator in accredited education, offering academic programs and co-curricular opportunities that place students on the path to self-actualization and career success. Leadership, entrepreneurship, experiential learning, positive societal impact, and connectedness to the business community, combined with a human-centered approach to student development, and an unyielding focus on student success, continue to be core pillars at Stuart. Stuart is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) – an accreditation achieved by fewer than 6% of business schools worldwide.

The Master of Public Administration in Analytics program both enables students to gain the coveted MPA credential as well as benefit from a history in innovation in analytics and a program that highlights contemporary tools for strategic administration, administering public policy, and achieving success in non-profit management. The program exposes students to subject matter experts from across the Stuart School of Business. 

This is a STEM-designated program, and international graduates of the program are eligible to apply for an extension for Optional Practical Training, which allows selected students to stay and work in the United States for up to three years after graduation.

Curriculum