Guidance for designing and delivering Masters in Public Administration (MPA) programmes has just been approved by three key stakeholder bodies - the Public Administration Committee (of the Joint University Council), the Public Management & Policy Association, and the Public Administration Specialist Group of the UK’s Political Studies Association. The Guidance benefitted from contributions by staff of the National School of Government and of Government Skills. Why is the development of this Guidance timely, what was the thinking behind it, and what are the principles that should be followed in designing and delivering MPAs? As will be seen, we give a lot of attention to the needs of the civil service and the new skills agenda for central government, because this is an important recent development, but the Guidance has been drafted for central government, regional bodies, local government, and all other public services organizations
