The MS in Urban Planning and Policy (MUPP) trains students to work as urban planners in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. The curriculum provides a solid foundation in planning and policy, while allowing students to develop substantial expertise in one of four focus areas: Urban Design and Physical Planning; Urban Analytics; Urban Sustainability and Resilience; and Urban Development Policy and Planning. For a deeper dive into course options and requirements, please refer to the University Catalog.
The Urban Design and Physical Planning specialization provides students with a foundation in principles and practices involved in designing vibrant, accessible, and sustainable urban spaces. Students learn theories of urban design and techniques and softwares of design representation. They can choose from three sub-tracks within the specialization: Urban Design and Real Estate, Physical Planning and Design for Sustainable Urbanism, and Urban Experience Design.
The Urban Design and Real Estate sub-track provides students skills in real estate finance and practice to prepare them to work with designers, communities, real estate professionals, government agencies, and other stakeholders to create great urban places. The sub-track in Physical Planning and Design for Sustainable Urbanism develops skills to realize ecologically sustainable urban development through the application of principles of environmental and urban design in the planning and policy process. Students in the sub-track in Urban Experience Design learn methods for analyzing and visualizing the city as a data environment, and designing for human interaction within urban systems.
The Urban Analytics focus area prepares students for careers analyzing data to solve urban problems. Students develop cutting edge skills in big data analysis, data visualization, and Geographic Information Systems, and learn the theoretical and practical skills to analyze cities as a system of systems. Electives allow students to gain deeper understanding of the application of data analytics techniques in the areas of environmental policy and planning, transportation and land use planning, and climate change adaptation and mitigation, among others.
The Urban Sustainability and Resilience specialization is intended for students interested in working on critical issues of climate change adaptation and mitigation, environmental sustainability, and disaster planning facing cities. The curriculum provides a theoretical foundation in the interaction between the built environment of cities and ecological systems, and in methods like dynamic modeling and Geographic Information Systems that are used to analyze these issues. Electives allow students to explore both the policy and physical planning and urban design dimensions of issues of sustainability and resilience.
The Urban Development Policy and Planning specialization area prepares students for careers working on issues of housing, economic development, and community development facing cities. The coursework allows students to focus their studies on specific topics. For example, students interested in housing can choose coursework that provides a strong background in housing policy and real estate finance and practice, while students interested in community development might choose coursework on community development, immigration policy, or nonprofit management.
MUPP students must complete an experiential requirement, such as an internship of at least 270 hours, a graduate Co-op program, or by achieving substantial professional planning and policy experience before the completion of the program.
The MUPP program consists of 12 courses totaling 48 semester hours. These include:
- Six core courses
- Three courses in a focus area
- Two free electives
- One capstone course
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Type of Program
- Graduate Program
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Program Director
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Graduate Certificates
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