Keeping abreast of new administrative development and demands of the country, the Yangon University of Economics has been offering, since the year 2000, a graduate programme leading to a Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree. This programme is designed for persons from a variety of academic and professional backgrounds, for policy makers and personnel, who are dealing with public affairs or nonprofit management, who expect great responsibility in public administration.
The programme comprises, of number of courses conducted by senior faculty members of Yangon University of Economics and the Yangon University, retired experienced public administrators, and executives from nonprofit organizations. The MPA full time programme offered is a three academic years programme. Each academic year is divided into four quarters of which three quarters are set for regular coursework and a summer quarter for directed research work preparation for thesis which is a requirement for the MPA degree. Four courses of 4 credit units each are offered each quarter and participates are required to complete 24 courses to obtain the 96 credit units required for MPA degree. Participants of the full time programme are required to attend daytime classes 4 hours per day, 4 days a week.
MPA evening classes for executive level are offered for those interested in earning a MPA degree without interrupting their professional careers. The MPA Evening Progamme is expected to take more than two academic years. Three courses of 4 credit units are offered each quarter and participants of this programme are required to complete 23 courses in two years to get 92 credits the remaining 4 credit units to be obtained from a thesis. Evening classes are held 2 hours per day every weekday plus 4 hours on Saturday.