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The master of urban and regional planning degree requires 48 semester credits, distributed approximately as follows: core courses (26 credits); capstone workshop (3.0 credits); specialization electives (at least 9 credits); and 10 credits of electives (some of which may be specialization electives) or Plan A thesis credits. Students also complete a professional paper and a 400-hour professional internship.

Required core courses (26 credits)

• PA 5004 - Introduction to Planning (3)
• PA 5013 - Law and Urban Land Use (1.5)
• PA 5031 - Empirical Analysis I (4)
• PA 5036 - Regional Economic Analysis (1.5)
• PA 5037 - Regional Demographic Analysis (1.5)
• PA 5253 - Designing Planning and Participation Processes (3.0)

• PA 5202 - American Cities: Land Use, Transportation, and the Urban Economy (4)
  or PA 5521 - Development Planning and Policy Analysis (4)

  Two of the following:

• PA 8201 - Environment and Infrastructure Planning (4)
• PA 8202 - Networks and Places: Land Use, Transportation, and Design (4)
• PA 8203 - Neighborhood Revitalization Theories & Strategies (4)
• PA 8204 - Creating Good Work: Economic and Workforce Development (4)

Specialization electives (9 credits in one of the following areas)

• Environmental planning
• Housing and community development
• Land use and urban design
• Transportation planning
• Regional, economic, and workforce development

Capstone workshop (3)

• Recent capstone workshop projects

Electives or Plan A thesis (10)

Professional Paper or Plan A thesis

• Professional Paper, Procedures and Timeline
• Paper Topic Approval Form (blank form)
• Recent exemplary Paper Topic Approval Forms
• Recent exemplary Professional Papers and Theses

Professional internships (400 hours)

• Recent internships

Dual degree opportunities

We offer dual degrees with the University of Minnesota School of Law, the School of Social Work, the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, and with the Department of Civil Engineering.

More about dual degrees

By choosing a dual-degree, you can complete a Humphrey Institute degree and another University of Minnesota graduate or professional degree in less time (typically one year or less) than it would take to complete the two degrees independently.