If you are looking to strengthen your skills or advance your career through continuing education, IU offers full-time employees generous tuition benefits to make this option more affordable.
That tuition benefit can be applied to O’Neill’s Online Master of Public Affairs (MPA) degree, which offers flexible, asynchronous classes and a curriculum that pairs well with careers in higher education. Take as little as one class at a time and schedule more time-intensive classes when it works best for you. The Online MPA, along with IU’s tuition benefit, makes it more achievable than ever to prioritize your education.
Description of the video:
I encourage every single IU employee who is looking for opportunities for personal and professional development to consider the IU tuition benefit. It's at little to no cost to you to do so other than your time and commitment.
I began my career with IU in 2008 in an hourly role and through the course of almost the last 15 years I've had the opportunity to promote up and get a lot of different experiences. O'Neill's Online MPA allows me to then have the education to go with what I am gaining as direct work experience.
I am a single mother I have three children we spend a lot of time going multiple directions of activities and programming and school. So when I am not living the dream every day through my career at IU I have a lot of other things going on. It has been a journey learning how to find balance.
I like that I can pick which courses make sense based off of what's happening at that time whether it's based off of the volume of my kids activities, if it's based off of where the university is at that time of the year. The online program allows for anyone at any level to be able to find time to prioritize their education. It gave me the ability to study when I needed to study.
I've always been on the background of the operation of the institution. Having the learning experience as a student directly impacts why and how I think about how we do our operations. You can take from the MPA curriculum and find opportunities to apply it directly to your life, both at home and at work.
I would absolutely encourage other staff to consider the online MPA due to the fact that you're getting an extremely high quality education and you're being able to do it in the time frames that work best for you.
I have now encouraged multiple staff members and helped them navigate directly their own Journeys, two of which I've seen go on to higher level opportunities at the university. I continue to watch doors open for them.
Being able to know that you can navigate getting a degree at little to no cost of your own and that the university wants see us do this it wants to see us use this benefit that's what makes IU great.
Use your tuition benefit and advance your career with O’Neill’s Online MPA
Take the first step
About the O’Neill School
With an MPA from the O’Neill School, your education builds on more than 50 years of growth and scholarship. The O’Neill School is one of the largest and most-respected schools of its kind, consistently recognized as one of the best among all Master of Public Affairs programs in the nation.
As an Online MPA student at O’Neill, you’ll experience the same expert faculty and rigorous curriculum as our top-ranked in-residence program but on more flexible terms. Learn how to address complex, interconnected problems through a traditional public administration and policy analysis curriculum blended with recent academic advances in leadership and governance.
What you’ll learn
The O’Neill Online MPA curriculum begins with 10 required core courses—your foundation to move up in the public affairs field:
- Leading and Managing Public Affairs
- Social Equity and Justice
- Designing and Managing Complex Projects
- Statistical Analysis for Effective Decision Making
- Problem Solving for Effective Decision Making
- Public Management Economics
- Law for Public Affairs
- Policy Process and Institutions*
- International Policy and Institutions*
- Public Finance and Budgeting
- U.S. or Global Capstone
*Students can choose to take Policy Process and Institutions or International Policy and Institutions
You will choose at least five advanced elective courses to fulfill your degree requirements and tailor the curriculum to meet your needs.
Students are required to focus in at least one of the following MPA advanced curriculum areas: Public Management, Nonprofit Management, or Policy Analysis.
One of your electives can be O'Neill Online Week, an optional, weeklong residential program held at our Bloomington, Indiana, campus in early August.
Important dates
Spring term
Classes begin in January
- Priority Deadline: November 15
- Final Deadline: December 1
Summer term
Classes begin in May
- Priority Deadline: March 15
- Final Deadline: April 1
Fall term
Classes begin in August
- Priority Deadline: July 15
- Final Deadline: August 1
Using your IU tuition benefit
As a full-time IU employee, we encourage you to take advantage of tuition benefits available to you and your spouse.
* Note: Online MPA subsidy amounts will be found under “Graduate - O'Neill Online (formerly SPEA Connect)” on the Bloomington campus.
I would absolutely encourage other staff to consider the Online MPA due to the fact that you're getting an extremely high-quality education, and you're able to do it in the timeframes that work best for you.
—Jamie Gayer, Senior Human Resources Director, IU Bloomington