School of Public Administration (SPA) was founded in 1993 and over the past 28 years it has proven to be one of the most dynamically developing schools of Moscow State University, bringing its own approach to the educational process, that both keeps in line with teaching and learning traditions of Russia and international experience. This approach to education serves as a means of generating an understanding of national course material and at the same time forms such competencies that meet the standards of the world’s leading training centers for public service. The SPA strategic task is not only to provide a comprehensive system for training specialists in the area of public administration but also to foster moral conscience, patriotism and sense of dignity in our students. The principles listed above are of the highest priority for our School and this is what undoubtedly distinguishes us from the others.
The School is headed by a well-known political scientist, chairman of the State Duma Committee on Education and Science, chairman of the board of the Russkiy Mir Foundation, doctor of historical sciences Vyacheslav Nikonov.
Devised in compliance with LMSU educational standards SPA offers the following degree-track full-time programs: bachelor’s and master’s programs, second graduate degree program, postgraduate and doctoral studies. SPA also offers several further education programs which are different in their duration, subject area and students’ workload. Each program is designed for particular groups of learners: school children (preparatory courses), university students, professionals in various fields.
SPA Bachelor degree programs Public and Municipal Administration, Human Resource Management, Management and Political Science expose students to cutting-edge learning techniques, giving them the skills and knowledge needed to pursue a successful professional career. SPA garners rigorous professional training and students gain in-depth knowledge and expertise in macro- and microeconomics, marketing, mathematical methods and models in economic planning management and budgeting, history, law, personnel management, psychology, financial management, PR, GR, PA, IT etc.
Based on its extensive successful experience accumulated over the years SPA aims at creating a brand new generation of public servants who will be able to act in a highly competitive environment and solve complex management problems in government, nonprofit and corporate sectors.
A great emphasis is being put on ensuring that SPA graduates of Master programs have a level of competencies that match the standards of the world’s top schools of public administration. Students are required to thoroughly examine the applicable conventions, domestic and international laws and regulations, draw up budgets and efficiently allocate resources, master the practices of improving and optimizing the organizational performance, elaborate effective employee incentives.
The range of training courses for graduate students is being constantly updated and adjusted to strategic priorities and newest public administration practices. Among them there are such diverse courses as Leadership, Special Services in the System of Public Administration, Risk Management and Hedging Instruments, Ethnopolitical Developments in the North Caucasus and Transcaucasia, Market Research, The History of Diplomacy and International Relations, and many others.
SPA offers a variety of executive education programs including Valuation of Business and Real Estate, Digital Economy, Planning and Management, Project Management, Environmental Assessment, Implementation of Public Policy in the Ethnopolitical Area, Modern HR Technologies in the Public Service, Practical Tools for Developing an Efficient System of HR Analysis, Personnel Reserve and Succession Management, STATISTICA for Education and Research.
SPA provides students with great opportunity to undergo internships at the State Duma committees and commissions, ministries and agencies, corporations and leading nonprofit organizations. School alumni constitute the core of the young graduates accepted every year into the government bodies of all levels and occupy high positions in Russian and international companies. The graduates are unique multi-lingual professionals who are in high demand on the labor market.
Advanced knowledge of foreign languages is one of the competitive advantages of SPA graduates. The School’s study program covers not only conventional language interaction but also business English and intensive study of professional communication on public administration matters.
In addition to mandatory classes of English students have an option to choose the second language: German, French, Spanish, Chinese. SPA has also devised a special training program for business communication interpreters available to undergraduate and graduate students.
SPA offers a set of continuing education programs aimed at advancing the proficiency level of public servants and commercial sector professionals and welcomes for Master of Business Administration (MBA) and Master of Public Administration (MPA) programs.
Besides, the School runs part-time university preparatory program for the students of the last three school years. This program helps them better prepare for the Unified State Exam in mathematics, Russian, English, social theory, and to additional admission tests. Students can select courses of their interest. The part-time evening classes held by the LMSU professors take place on campus. The majority of preparatory program graduates successfully pass admission tests to our School, other LMSU faculties or other universities.
SPA students are engaged in a wide variety of social and extra-curriculum activities available on campus including numerous sports contests, “Administrator’s Week”, student’s standup comedy club “Dean’s Cup”, “What? Where? When?” quiz club, “Miss SPA MSU” beauty pageant, and «FGU.Awards» ceremony. School of Public Administration takes part in “University Saturdays” – a joint project ran by the LMSU and the Government of Moscow.