Master of Digital Administration is coming in autumn 2024!

Digitalization wisdom from the world’s #1 digital nation - coming in 2024!

The aim of this first-class and innovative one-year master program is to train top public servants, professionals and IT specialists in leading a comprehensive digitalization of the public sector based on Estonia's experience in building a digital state and related technology business ecosystem.

This involves:

• acquiring knowledge on the foundations of digital governance, guiding principles behind it and necessary technological conditions;
• being able to recognize specific practical use cases that a highly digitalized public sector provides in effective and efficient governance and increase the quality of life through developing various digital services that cross domain boundaries, capture unique data and use it in novel ways.

The MDA MA program differs from the global competition in four important ways:

• It is an online one-year postgraduate program, which includes two physical sessions with Estonian top experts (one week at the beginning and second week at the end of the program); 
• It includes a specialization module that focuses on four separate domains in depth;
• It has general courses that are designed around actual use cases;
• Its graduates are trained not only as general managers of e-governance, but practitioners who are able to recognize e-governance use cases across disciplines.

The MDA program comprises three main modules:

• Foundation of a digital nation (digital state philosophy, digital leadership and entrepreneurship skills);
• Toolbox for digitalization (digital process governance, cyber security, internet voting);
• Domain knowledge in digitalization (digital future of healthcare and education, digital labour market and protection on natural environment).

The program ends with a Capstone project and there is no requirement for master´s thesis.

Form of study: 1+1 week in Tartu, 90% online format.
The program is among very few that offers the possibility to complete a full executive degree in a 90% online format. The learners of the program will have access not only to high quality video lectures, practiced labs, guided projects and assignments, but also prompt technical support and personalized guidance to ensure a smooth learning experience. They will spend one week at the beginning of the program in Estonia + one week at the end of the program. 

Applications
Admission requirements of Digital Administration:

• master's degree and at least 3 years of professional work experience in a related field

Applications are evaluated based on:

• the score of the motivation letter (yields 50% of the final score)
• the admission interview (yields 50% of the final score)

The motivation letter (in English, up to 4000 characters with spaces) should address the following points:

• Motivation for applying for the program and how the previous education and work experience relate to it;
• Future career plans and how the knowledge, skills, and experiences acquired through the program would help to achieve this;
• Specific research interests within the field of digitalization.

Evaluation criteria:
Each letter will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

• Well-argued reasons for applying for the program; the relevance of previous education and career path in selecting this program (40%)
• Concise overview on how the knowledge acquired through the program will help achieve the envisioned future career path (40%)
• Substantive example(s) of research interest and the connections with the content of the program (20%)

The interview is a follow-up to the motivation letter.
It will last about 30 minutes and will be held electronically. The invitation with the online link will be sent to the candidate a few days prior. In the interview, the candidate should be ready to discuss their motivation to take up studies in the MDA programme. The candidate should be also able to describe their research interests in relation to the study programme as well as the practical knowledge they hope to get out of the programme. We will also inquire about the candidate's preparedness to adjust to an intensive online study program. 
The maximum score for the interview is 100 points. Each interview will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

• Motivation and ambition (70%);
• Identification of specific research and practical interests compatible with the substantive content of the programme (20%);
• Oral argumentation skills and command of the English language (10%).

Important dates:

• 2 January Application system opens
• 15 March Application deadline
• 15 May Admission results
• 2 September Academic year starts

 Study language: English

 Duration and credits: 1 year, 60 ECTS

 Location: Tartu, Online

 Student places: 15

 Tuition fee: 24,500 EUR