Specializations
Curricular Philosophies: Generalists vs. Specialists?
For some years, planning education has felt a tension between an approach that aims to train good generalists, with knowledge and skills geared to adaptability and life-long learning, and an approach that attempts to focus, particularize, and deepen knowledge with training in job-specific skills. Because this debate has no simple conclusion, the faculty has opted to give students a choice in selecting which form of education and professional training most suits them.
Effective for MUP classes entering the program in 2005 and thereafter, at the start of the third semester of study students must declare an option to pursue one of five “specialization options,” or they must opt to pursue one of two “interdisciplinary approaches” in completing their second and final year of study.
Students wishing to pursue greater depth of knowledge may choose to specialize in one (or more) areas of concentration. Specializations typically consist of four or five courses, generally including an introduction to the field, a relevant methods course, and two or three electives, plus a culminating thesis or professional project synthesizing material from the area of concentration.
The department offers five specializations and the interdisciplinary option:
1.) Community Development and Urban Management
2.) Economic and International Development
3.) Environmental and Physical Planning
4.) GIS and Planning Technologies
5.) Urban Design
6.) Interdisciplinary Options
Specific course requirements in the overviews that follow are subject to change. Please bear in mind department policy stipulating a maximum of six credits taken outside the department to count toward the MUP degree. Please see specialization coordinators for advising and questions.
