Master in Urban Studies

The Master of Urban Studies is a one-of-a-kind interdisciplinary degree program. It mixes engineering, natural science, and social science courses to give students a holistic understanding of cities, urbanization processes, urban life, society, and governance. 

It addresses historical gaps in producing comprehensive skilled human resources for urban development, urban development, and its studies have been a relatively neglected area, except in silos, perhaps peripherally, as parts of architecture or civil engineering, without a sound understanding of society, social realities, governance, and social science inputs to grapple with and examine significant picture issues of urbanization, contextualizing infrastructure. 

In an era of rapid yet unplanned urbanization, where over 6.5 billion people will be urbanites by 2050, up from around 4 billion today, cities must be more resilient, particularly in developing nations.

In this context, the program's goal is to generate academics, researchers, and professionals who can contribute to the development and transformation of sustainable cities by providing solid theoretical and research-based practical knowledge. The program offers an opportunity to study sustainable urban development ideas, methodologies, and practices, as well as social and infrastructure planning and urban policy analysis.

Aims of the Programs

• Integrate national development needs of urbanization and global development needs and SDGs into effective learning platform.
• Address the specific challenges of urban poverty and access to infrastructure and future opportunities.
• Ensure urban resilience to climate change and disaster risk reduction.
• Promote integrated land use planning, innovative infrastructure, efficient service delivery, and efficient spatial concentration.
• Offer unique learning, practice, and research opportunities to explore the best possible urbanism to make a contribution to a brighter future for cities and nation-states.
• Meet the emerging needs of high-quality professionals for sustainable development of urban regions.
• Produce theoretically trained and practically skilled professionals for sustainable urban transformation.

Evaluation Methods

We employ innovative course evaluation methods inclusive of required reading-based class interactions; long and short writing assignments; research-based presentations; field works; internships; quizzes; and exams.

Teaching and Learning Mode

Predominantly face-to-face but we also use online mode as appropriate.

Graduation

Students must successfully complete 54 credit courses. Project works are an integral component of most of the courses.

Class Time

4:30 PM to 7:30 PM