Master of Urban and Regional Planning

Virginia Commonwealth University

Program goals

• The Master of Urban and Regional Planning degree program advances social justice and quality of life through planning, designing and evaluating options to create, enhance and sustain the social, economic and environmental conditions that improve communities. The program maintains a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion. The goals for the program are to:
• Prepare students to be effective practitioners in a variety of planning-related organizations, especially in mature communities and regions, with competence in the preparation, presentation and implementation of professional plans and in doing planning-related work
• Produce scholarship that increases knowledge and understanding of sustainability and planning support systems as well as the development of innovative methodological approaches and solutions to address issues related to sustainable community development
• Provide useful planning services to mature communities and regions, in cooperation with private and public planners, as appropriate
• Address issues of historic and current inequity, social justice and sustainability in built environments, neighborhoods and communities

Student learning outcomes

• Students will acquire knowledge of planning and other related fields relevant to real-world and theoretical settings.
• Students will be able to pose and solve urban planning problems using planning skills, including:

1. research methods,
2. plan creation and implementation,
3. public engagement, and
4. effective communication and leadership.

• Students will understand how to use the values and ethics of professional planning to inform and guide planning decisions.

• Community Revitalization
• Environmental Planning
• Metropolitan Planning