The Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning team is an engaged community of students, alumni, scholars, staff and practitioners. Their goal is the education of a new generation of leaders, “practical visionaries” who will contribute to the development of more just and sustainable communities. A key step toward this is making our institutions more responsive to child, adult, and, ultimately, community well-being by helping them understand, empathize with, and respond to the social, economic, and environmental needs of individuals and communities.

This accredited Master of Arts degree in Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning requires completion of 12 course credits (most semester-long courses receive one credit), a thesis and an internship. The M.A. program usually takes two-years of full-time study. Students may also enroll in the program on a part-time basis. The M.A. degree is awarded through the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

UEP is proud of their flexible curriculum which is built around a set of six core values and a set of competencies based on three areas: knowledge, skills, and policy and planning in practice. The need is recognized for the policy and planning specialist, the person who wants to plan for landscape, ecological or watershed management, or develop child and/or family or other social welfare policies. Also recognized are the inextricable interconnections between and across different policy and planning areas, whether your interest is primarily environmental or social, urban or rural, local or global. Accordingly, students’ choice of classes can be narrower (on the public policy and planning challenges in one policy or planning area) or broader (on sustainable development which looks at these issues and their interrelationships as a whole), depending, ultimately, on their goals.