MUPD, Urban Planning & Design – Non-thesis

Degree Program Summary:

The Master of Urban Planning and Design (MUPD) program in the College of Environment and Design at the University of Georgia is a professional graduate program with an emphasis on a studio based integrative planning process grounded in environmental and ecological principles. The purpose is to improve the lives of people and ecosystem health in regions and urban centers, incorporating cultural, historic and design elements, while engaging community process to identify and plan for long range city and regional future goals. A degree in the MUPD program prepares students for professional careers working in public planning agencies, private firms with city and regional planning departments as a professional planner or in non-profit agencies. The program also offers preparation for future doctoral work in city and regional planning. We welcome students from a wide variety of undergraduate degree programs who are interested in a working with local communities, civic leaders, public agencies and design teams to engage in a democratic planning process. Situated in the College of Environment and Design, which houses well established and highly rated graduate programs in landscape architecture and historic preservation, the MUPD program offers wide ranging opportunities for collaborative efforts and program concentrations. In addition, students can take course work throughout the University of Georgia in fields such as geography, real estate, anthropology, sociology and ecology to widen their knowledge base and operate within an interdisciplinary framework.

City and regional planners need a broad understanding in areas such as ecology, historic resources, sociology, anthropology, economics and design, as well as a skill set including information gathering, data analysis and plan making.

The MUPD program is a two year graduate program. The first year is focused on acquiring basic knowledge and understanding of the history, theory and practice of planning, ecology, GIS, research skills and community engagement. The studio sequence in the first year provides a workshop setting where students apply the information they are learning to a community based project.

In the second year, the students are involved in a third neighborhood based planning studio, as well as in shaping their master thesis or final internship practicum. They can focus their concentration on the existing ecological or cultural resource planning offers, or work with their advisor to shape a program from courses within the CED or throughout the University of Georgia to tailor a program specific to the individual student interests and career goals.

Requirements for the MUPD degree include satisfactory completion of all coursework, and an approved master thesis or internship practicum with an applied research paper.