Master of Urban Planning (MUP)

As the first professional program of its kind in the UAE, our Master in Urban Planning degree prepares skilled professionals and leaders in planning and managing urban development.

Our unique program is committed to the creation, dissemination, and application of multidisciplinary knowledge in the field of urban planning. Our program provides professional men and women with outstanding, specialized graduate education that enables them to undertake leadership roles in managing urban growth, prescribing urbanization policies and advancing social development. We seek to empower students with the highest ethical standards compatible with values of local cultural settings, principles of social justice, and concerns for environmental protection and sustainability.

Our Master in Urban Planning (MUP) is fully accredited by the Commission for Academic Accreditation of the Ministry of Education's Higher Education Affairs Division and is taught by a multinational and distinguished faculty. With a total of 11 courses that need to be completed for the degree, our program can be taken on a full-time or part-time basis. Full-time students typically register for three or four courses a semester and complete the program in two years.

Part-time students typically register for two or three courses a semester and complete the program in three years. Students with advanced standing (for instance, with an undergraduate degree in urban planning) can have up to five courses waived and can reduce the program duration by one or two semesters.

Our graduates are currently employed in a number of sectors including local government and consulting firms across the country.

We are committed to ensuring that our program follows the aims and goals that we have set for ourselves and our students. These include:

offering the highest quality educational setting that integrates theoretical principles of urban planning with practical applications.
pursuing approaches to teaching and learning that emphasize dealing, whenever possible, with practical, real-world issues and problems.
supporting and promoting interdisciplinary original research in urban planning and related fields.
attracting the best-qualified students with indisputable potential for leadership.
advancing cooperation and forging partnerships with local communities, be they governmental, professional, academic and/or other local groups such as not-for-profit entities and non-governmental organizations.

Based on these goals, our objective is to produce urban planning professionals who:

have the knowledge and skills necessary to effectively engage in urban planning practice at the local, national, regional and international scale.
can take leadership roles in planning administration and policy-making at the local and national levels.
can deal with planning problems in their local context without overlooking the global dimension.
are action-oriented and deeply acquainted with practical, real-world issues and problems that they consider as a means to engage theories and understand concepts.
view planning as a value-laden field with wide-ranging societal implications.
understand and appreciate the interdisciplinary nature of the field of urban planning and value sustainability as a basic guiding principle in all urban planning activities.