Learning and leading for global human well-being
The University of Pennsylvania, also known as Penn, is a highly selective and top-ranked Ivy League university located on a beautiful urban campus in historic Philadelphia. The Penn International Master of Public Administration (I-MPA) is an exciting, innovative, skills-based graduate degree program that is expressly dedicated to improving global human well-being by professionally educating, nurturing, and networking present and future problem-solving leaders.
The Penn I-MPA takes one academic year and nine courses to complete. It is an academically cutting-edge cohort model program (all I-MPA degree candidates take all I-MPA courses together and participate in numerous extracurricular learning experiences together) led by a distinctively interdisciplinary, multinational, and multilingual team of world-class scholars and noted leaders in government, business, and the nonprofit sector who teach, advise, mentor, and inspire our students.
I-MPA degree candidates are educationally equipped and professionally empowered through four interlocking program components:
Curriculum: Nine well-integrated courses that culminate in an advanced individual capstone exercise, and a group-organized, class-wide capstone project.Languages: Proficiency in English and Mandarin.Extracurricular activities: Extracurricular experiences including special events and a distinguished speaker series.Advising: Year-long robust, individualized academic advising and professional mentoring.For I-MPA Class of 2026, classes start for the fall semester on August 26, 2025 and finish at the end of the spring semester on April 29, 2026.
