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• Macdonald-Harrington Building, Room 400
• 815 Sherbrooke Street West
• Montreal QC H3A 0C2

• Telephone: 514-398-4075
• Fax: 514-398-8376
• Email: admissions.planning [at] mcgill.ca
• Website: www.mcgill.ca/urbanplanning

Urban planning can be described as the collective management of urban development. It is concerned with the welfare of communities, control of the use of land, design of the built environment, including transportation and communication networks, and protection and enhancement of the natural environment. It is at once a technical and a political process that brings together actors from the public, private, and community spheres. Planners participate in that process in a variety of ways, as designers and analysts, advocates and mediators, facilitating the search for equitable and efficient solutions to problems of urban change and development.

Modern urban planning developed into a profession largely as a response to the appalling sanitary, social, and economic conditions of rapidly developing industrial cities. Initially, the disciplines of architecture, landscape architecture, civil engineering, and public health provided the nucleus of concerned professionals; beautification schemes and infrastructure works marked the early stages of public intervention in the 19th century. Architects, engineers, and public health specialists were joined by economists, sociologists, lawyers, and geographers as the complexities of the city's problems came to be more fully understood and public pressure mounted for their solution. Contemporary urban and regional planning techniques for survey, analysis, design, and implementation developed from an interdisciplinary synthesis of these various fields. This multidisciplinarity is still a hallmark of planning practice and of planning education.

McGill was the first university in Canada to offer a planning degree, starting in 1947. The School of Urban Planning itself was established as an independent unit in 1972. Today, it brings together students from various fields (such as those mentioned above) and different parts of the world in a professional master’s program and an ad hoc Ph.D. program. Key features of the work done at the school are the use of real-world projects for learning, a focus on policy-relevant research, and strong engagement with the community, both in Canada and abroad.

The School has a long track record of research, capacity-building and consulting in developing regions as well as in Montreal and other Canadian cities. Faculty and students collaborate actively with members of other McGill departments, notably Architecture, Geography, Civil Engineering, and Law, and with colleagues at other institutions in Canada and abroad. Alumni of the School work as planners and designers at various levels of government, in non-profit organizations, and with private consulting firms. Their expertise ranges from urban design to transportation planning, from housing policy to computer modelling. They devote their efforts in increasing numbers to environmental planning and sustainable development.

The objective of the School is to enable young urban planners to exercise leadership in the public, private, and community sectors. Training is provided at the postgraduate level. The main degree offered is the Master of Urban Planning (M.U.P.). Many specializations are possible within the program; one of them, in Transportation Planning, is formally recognized as a concentration. M.U.P. students in the core program may also opt to spend a semester in Barbados as part of the Barbados Field Study Semester, which focuses on global environmental issues. Details concerning each of these concentrations can be found at www.mcgill.ca/urbanplanning/programs/mup-transportation-planning (see also ), and at www.mcgill.ca/bfss, respectively. Upon completion of the two-year program of studies, graduates are expected to have acquired basic planning skills, a broad understanding of urban issues, and specialized knowledge in a field of their own choice. The School also welcomes a small number of students into its ad hoc Ph.D. in Urban Planning, Policy, and Design. That program aims to prepare students for careers in high-level research and teaching.

The professional program of study offered by the School is fully recognized by the Ordre des Urbanistes du Québec (O.U.Q.) and the Canadian Institute of Planners (C.I.P.). Graduates may become full members of the O.U.Q. and other provincial planning associations, and therefore of C.I.P., by completing their respective internship and examination requirements. Similar requirements must be met for admission to the American Institute of Certified Planners (A.I.C.P.) and other such organizations. For details of the M.U.P. admission requirements and curriculum, consult the School’s website at www.mcgill.ca/urbanplanning as well as the eCalendar under Faculties & Schools > Faculty of Engineering > Graduate > Academic Programs > Urban Planning.

Although the M.U.P. program is primarily a professional degree program, it has a very important research component. The work done on the Supervised Research Project in the course of the second year of study qualifies for funding by federal and provincial funding agencies such as SSHRC, NSERC, FQRSC, and FQRNT. Some students enter the M.U.P. program with fellowships from these agencies; others obtain them after joining the School, for their second year of study.

The School of Urban Planning hosts a number of events that are open to undergraduate students and to the public: the Brenda and Samuel Gewurz Lectures in Urban Design bring speakers of international calibre to McGill; the Transportation Research Group at McGill holds seminars on issues pertaining to various aspects of urban and regional transportation; and the "urban.studies@mcgill" seminars bring speakers from academia, the profession and the community to talk about contemporary urban issues.

For details of the M.U.P. admission requirements and curriculum, consult the eCalendar for Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies.

The following courses taught by faculty in the School of Urban Planning are open to undergraduate students: