School of Public Administration

US Travel Ban Apply online Our programs
Diploma in Indigenous Community Development and Governance

A new cohort will be joining the School for September 2018 entry. For information about this program, contact the program manager at Diploma_ICDG@uvic.ca. Click here for the program brochure.

The School of Public Administration would like to welcome all of our new and returning students!

Maxine Bruce

How do you think your studies at SPA will impact your future? Thank-you to ICDG student, Maxine Bruce, for sharing her photo that illustrates this question.

Read more
Leila Bautista

How do you think your studies at SPA will impact your future? Thank-you to MPA student, Leila Bautista, for sharing her photo that illustrates this question.

Read more
Clapping hands

Congratulations to the MACD, MADR, and MPA students who, during spring and summer 2018, defended their capstone reports to clients in the government, non-profit and community sectors. Browse through completed Master's reports.

Read more

The School of Public Administration at the University of Victoria is situated on the traditional territory of the Coast Salish People. Our commitment as a School to build respectful relationships with the various Nations and diverse people, and to better respect our environment, creates an amazing momentum for contributing to social betterment.

Our vision

The School of Public Administration develops leading edge thinkers and professionals who will have a positive impact on the different orders of government, nonprofit organizations and communities in British Columbia, in Canada, and around the world. Through our research, teaching, and engagement, we contribute to the building of a better world.

Our mission

Teaching: The School is dedicated to the training of public sector and community leaders. The School builds on its values, research, and interdisciplinary expertise to offer high quality education to its students. Our students are able to navigate complex settings, and capable of assessing whether and how programs and policies add value to society, in a way that respects the broader public interest and ethics of their profession. We prepare our students to work in a challenging and rapidly evolving environment with diverse stakeholders. We train inquisitive students to speak truth to power with integrity. We offer transformative learning, knowledge and experience.

Contribution to knowledge: The School contributes to cutting-edge knowledge and is a resource to communities and to all orders of government. Our faculty members, with different disciplinary backgrounds, are engaged in applied research relevant for analyzing and solving challenges of policy, management, government, and community. We are committed to a mutually supportive research culture and knowledge mobilization that includes collaboration with a broad range of stakeholders, including students, and practitioners.

Engagement: As engaged scholars, we have a responsibility in building and offering creative and even disruptive knowledge to better serve society.

Our values

Integrity: We value people, democracy, fairness, openness, honesty, accessibility, participation, accountability and transparency.

Engaged and courageous scholarship: We support transformative and disruptive thinking, innovation, creativity, social justice, interdisciplinarity and collaboration.

Sustainability: We value the building of healthy and sustainable communities and societies where each and every person has access to an environment that will support and sustain health and biodiversity.

Inclusivity: We value human rights, equity, indigeneity, respect, and diversity.