Implications of the South African higher education qualifications framework for the Master of Public Administration

Abstract

This article describes the implications of the South African Higher Education Qualifications Framework (HEQF) for the structuring of the Master of Public Administration (MPA) that are offered at South African universities. The MPA programmes in South Africa are compared with the MPA programmes that are offered in the United States of America (USA). The research shows that not all the South African MPA programmes meet the HEQF’s requirements for a course work master’s degree. Most of the MPA programmes will therefore have to be adapted to meet the requirements of the HEQF. The requirements of the HEQF for a course work master’s degree will give the South African MPA programmes a higher research component than the MPA programmes that are offered in the USA. The implications of this will be that the research component of South African programmes with below average research components will have to be increased.