About the School

Serving its missions of competence, diversity, knowledge, and service, the School of Public Affairs and Administration (SPAA) applies a performance management approach to efficient, effective, equitable, and accountable public policy implementation. SPAA carries out these missions by offering academic education programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels for those who seek to educate, lead, or manage in the over 87,000 governmental units at U.S. federal, state, and local levels and the hundreds of thousands of philanthropy, advocacy, and contract organizations engaged in implementing public policies.

Internationally renowned SPAA faculty members are engaged in a variety of research fields related to government performance effectiveness and also directly support local, state, and regional governments through research, participation on projects, lectures, monitoring interns, and presentations. SPAA maintains close relationships with New Jersey's local and state government agencies, and these relationships provide students with learning opportunities, graduates with career opportunities, and career mobility for those seeking career change. We are especially proud of our association with Newark because it provides our students with access to an urban laboratory where the elected administration seeks performance improvement in every facet of policy implementation from government effectiveness and transparency to smart growth and infrastructure development amid challenges of achieving safety for citizens and visitors and viability for areas of economic stagnation.

SPAA's mission success is attested to by thousands of graduates now serving in positions of leadership in the public and nonprofit sectors, the expanding numbers of inquirers and participants in our programs, and by the respect of our peers, who elevate the school to top rankings in U.S News & World Report's evaluation of public policy and public administration schools nationwide. In its most recent report, U.S. News & World Report ranked Rutgers–Newark the most diverse national university and 12th in campus/faculty research among small doctoral-granting institutions. SPAA ranked among the top fifty in a number of categories: 9th in information and technology, 10th in public management and administration, 11th in public finance and budgeting, 14th in city management and urban policy, 18th in nonprofit management, 32nd in public policy, and 32nd in public affairs. We are proud of these rankings because in large measure they signal that we are respected by our peers.