The School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) at the University of Georgia ranks among the top tier Public Affairs Graduate Schools according to U.S. News & World Report. In the 2023 rankings released on March 29th, SPIA is No. 3 in the nation for Public Affairs Graduate Programs, the highest the school has ranked since 2004.
SPIA has consistently ranked among the top ten public affairs programs for over two decades. In addition to the overall rankings, SPIA ranks third for the Public Management and Leadership specialty, third for Public Finance and Budgeting, and fourth for Local Government Management.
“SPIA’s faculty have a remarkable ability to produce excellent research while also excelling in the classroom,” Dean Matthew Auer observes. “It’s gratifying to see SPIA well-placed in the rankings. It’s even more exciting to see our faculty, staff, students, and alumni having direct, positive impacts in so many different domains of public life.”
SPIA’s alumni are intensively involved in public service and outreach. In March 2022, President Biden announced he is appointing Dr. Jared Llorens (PhD ’07) to the Federal Salary Council. Llorens also serves on the SPIA Board of Visitors. In the nonprofit sphere, MPA alumnus Nipuna Ambanpola is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of iVolunteer International, an organization that leverages technology to make it easy for volunteers to contribute to their local communities. SPIA alumni also lead efforts to manage and contain COVID. As a Senior Preparedness Field Assignee at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Jennifer Johnson (MPA ’14) assesses public health risks and has been on the frontlines of the pandemic since 2020.
SPIA continues to foster partnerships with UGA Public Service and Outreach units such as the Carl Vinson Institute of Government, which helped establish the MPA program in 1966. These relationships have provided SPIA students with unique opportunities to engage with local government leaders both inside and outside of the classroom.
Other institutional rankings place SPIA among the top programs in public administration. In 2021, Shanghai’s Academic Ranking of World Universities ranked UGA sixth globally and second among institutions within the United States.