Master of Public Administration with a concentration in Public and Community Health online

Become a leader in creating policies and procedures that can shape the future of healthcare in your community.

Apply by: 1/8/25
Start Class: 1/14/25
Apply Now

Program Overview

Dive into the online MPA in Public and Community Health program

$16,290* Total Tuition
As few as 12 months Program Duration
36 Credit Hours

Broaden your career in the public service sector with the skills you will gain in the Master of Public Administration with a concentration in Public and Community Health online program from Murray State. As part of this program, you will develop essential skills in policy-making and public communication. You will also focus on health counseling, environmental health and health behavior.

By choosing electives, you can shape your degree to match your professional goals. Plus, our relevant core coursework gives you a background in key areas of public administration, including policy analysis, budgeting and finance, organizational theory, human resource management and more.

This 100 percent online program from Murray State’s College of Humanities and Fine Arts includes a capstone experience in which you will integrate theories and methods by proposing and executing a project involving a substantive management or analytic issue in the public sector.

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Best Graduate Schools

Murray State University is ranked among the 2023-2024 Best Graduate Schools for their MBA and MPA programs by U.S. News & World Report.

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This program will prepare you for careers such as:

  • Human Resource Administrator
  • Healthcare Administrator or Manager
  • Disaster Management Planner
  • Emergency Management Director
  • Community Health Educator
  • Public Health Director
  • Health Policy Analyst
This program will prepare you for careers such as:+
  • Human Resource Administrator
  • Healthcare Administrator or Manager
  • Disaster Management Planner
  • Emergency Management Director
  • Community Health Educator
  • Public Health Director
  • Health Policy Analyst
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Have questions or need more information about our online programs?

Also available

Murray State University offers a variety of specialized Master of Public Administration concentrations. Check out all of our online MPA programs.

Tuition

Take a look at Murray State’s affordable tuition

Master of Public Administration online programs from Murray State University offer affordable, pay-by-the-course tuition. All fees are included in the total tuition.

Tuition breakdown:

$452.50 Per Credit Hour
$16,290* Total Tuition
View full tuition breakdown
Program Per Credit Hour Per Course Per Program
MPA – Public and Community Health $452.50 $1,357.50 $16,290*

*The tuition rate is subject to annual changes based on approval by the Murray State University Board of Regents and the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education. Refer to Graduate Tuition Rates for more information on the cost of attendance for Murray State.

Calendar

Know these important dates for our students

Murray State University online programs are delivered in an accelerated format ideal for working professionals, conveniently featuring multiple start dates each year.

Now enrolling:

1/8/25 Next Application Deadline
1/14/25 Start Classes

View full calendar  + 

TermStart DateApplication DeadlineDocument & Financial Aid DeadlinePriority Registration DeadlineTuition DeadlineLast Class DayTerm Length
Spring 11/14/251/8/251/9/251/10/251/13/253/5/257 weeks
Spring 23/11/253/5/253/6/253/7/253/10/255/6/257 weeks
Summer 15/12/255/6/255/7/255/8/255/9/256/21/257 weeks
Ready to take the next step toward earning your degree online from Murray State?
Apply Now

Admissions

Follow this checklist to apply to the MPA in Public and Community Health program

At Murray State University, we’ve streamlined the admission process to help you get started quickly and easily. Please read the requirements for the Master of Public Administration with a concentration in Public and Community Health online, including where to send your transcripts.

The requirements include:

Online application accepted on a rolling basis
Bachelor’s degree FROM A 4-YEAR DOMESTIC INSTITUTION
Transcripts from all colleges and universities previously attended
2.5 GPA ON UNDERGRADUATE COURSEWORK
View all admission requirements

For admission to this MPA online program, you must meet the following requirements:

  • Bachelor’s degree from a 4-year domestic institution
  • Undergraduate GPA of 2.5 or higher
  • Transcripts from all colleges and universities previously attended

Official transcripts, test scores and other documents should be sent from issuing institutions to:

Email address: [email protected]

Mail address:

Graduate Admissions
Murray State University
B2 Sparks Hall
Murray, KY 42071

Questions? Call 866-906-0541.

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Courses

Learn the degree plan for our online public and community health program

For the Master of Public Administration with a concentration in Public and Community Health online, you must complete 21 credit hours of core courses and 15 credit hours of electives.

Expand All
Duration: 7 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 3
Examines the process of research in public affairs, with an emphasis on quantitative methods and techniques.
Duration: 7 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 3
A graduate-level introduction to the study of public administration, covering substantive topics in the field as well as the political dimensions of public service and the ethical issues faced by government practitioners. Emphasis is placed on the development of the discipline as a field of inquiry.
Duration: 7 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 3
Problems and methods in perception of public problems, determination of goals, generation and evaluation of alternative policy practices and programs, and explanation of policy choices. Emphasis on political and analytical methods of examining policy making and policy outcomes. Includes a survey of literature dealing with theories of the policy process.
Duration: 7 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 3
An intensive, graduate-level overview of public agency and governmental budgeting and finance at the federal, state, and local government levels. This course examines budgeting as a tool of governmental economic and public policy. Specifically, the course considers the evolution and purposes of budgeting with special attention given to recent efforts to improve government resource allocation.
Duration: 7 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 3
This course introduces management of public and nonprofit organizations by reviewing the history and evolution of organization theory and the application of these theories to 21st century public and nonprofit organizations. Topics such as organizational culture, conflict, stress, communication, leadership, groups, power and politics, and ethics will be examined in an attempt to explain and predict employee behavior in the context of public organizations.
Duration: 7 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 3
An intensive, graduate-level overview of public sector human resource and human capital management in the federal, state, and local governments, including such topics as types of personnel systems; recruitment and selection; compensation and benefits; training and development; performance management; legal compliance; diversity; and labor-management relations. Students address the literature in one of these areas.
Duration: 7 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 1
A course integrating the theories and methods of public administration in a major research project related to a substantive management or policy problem in the public sector. Students must propose a research design for an original project after completing a major review of public administration literature. Normally this course shall be taken in the last semester of graduate work within the M.P.A. program. Required for all MPA students.
Duration: 7 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 2
A course integrating the theories and methods of public administration in a major research project related to a substantive management or policy problem in the public sector. Students must complete an original research project that was proposed in POL 688. Normally this course shall be taken in the last semester of graduate work in the M.P.A. program. Required for all MPA students. Prerequisite: POL 688 and instructor permission.
Students must take five electives from the following.
Duration: 7 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 3
Study of the major theories of health behavior and strategies used to implement health interventions. Students will examine the social, cultural, and environmental influences on behavior and the links between behavior and health. Emphasis will be placed on strategies for putting theory into practice via health counseling.
Duration: 7 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 3
Course will cover principles of biostatistics in the context of public health applications. It will include the basic and advanced statistical techniques for analyzing and investigating public health issues including disparities. A statistical package, like SPSS, will be used.
Duration: 7 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 3
Course will introduce and outline the science of epidemiology as it relates and contributes to the fields of public health, medicine, and the social sciences. Additionally, this course will focus on the epidemiology methods used to investigate health outcomes in different situations and populations through identifying causative and associative fators of disease and exposure.
Duration: 7 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 3
Course addresses how public policy development and analysis have an impact on the public’s health. The course is designed to provide professionals with the skills for collecting, analyzing, and communicating information on public health policy issues using approaches that would be useful in the policy making arena. Students will learn what policy is, who the policymakers are in public health, who the actors are who are affected by public health policy, and the major influences in determining what policy gets implemented, including the science underlying policy proposals.
Duration: 7 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 3
Course examines factors in the environment that impact human health. This course is designed to explore ways in which humankind may control the environment in order to minimize deleterious effects on health and quality of life. These types of topics will be discussed: how certain environmental health conditions could be an asset or barrier to health, health behavior change, community participation, environmental health advocacy, justice and programming, the public health side of environmental health, and environmental epidemiology.
Duration: 7 Weeks weeks
Credit Hours: 3
Course presents concepts, procedures and methods for the identification of population-based needs for public and community health interventions, development of programs to meet those needs and evaluation of the effectiveness of these interventions. The course will integrate several knowledge and skill areas, including research methods, epidemiology, biostatistics, proposal writing, budget planning, project management, and program evaluation period.

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