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Aerial view of McGill's main campus in central Montréal. Mont-Royal is to the left.

Student proposal for east-central Montréal

Autoroute Ville-Marie in central Montréal is among the most massive infrastructure projects ever undertaken in Montréal, and its negative effects on the adjacent urban fabric and nearby communities are still major issues.

Postwar suburban subdivisions: blight or cultural landscapes of significant value?

The Place de la Cité project replaced the fine-grained urban fabric seen at the left with megastructures. Some saw it as progress, others as desecration. The conflict continues to rage...

Vieux-Montréal

At the end of a fun and moving party in his honour, some friends, colleagues, alumni and current students gather around Prof. David Brown, who retired in 2014.

School of Urban Planning

Welcome!

Thank you for your interest in our academic programs and research. The School of Urban Planning offers the following degree programs:

a professionally-accredited Master of Urban Planning (M.U.P.) non-thesis program
a new research-focused Master of Science (M.Sc.) thesis program in Urban Planning, Policy, and Design
a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) program in Urban Planning, Policy, and Design

In each program, our aim is to give individuals the intellectual and practical skills needed to excel in the field and thereby to improve human settlements around the world. The School also provides students with opportunities to explore Montréal as a living laboratory for urban planning, policy, and design. Students arrive from a diversity of backgrounds, life experiences, and identities, from Québec, Canada, and internationally.

Our professionally-accredited non-thesis M.U.P. program trains planners for the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors with an attention to equity, resilience, and spatial justice in cities. The two years of intensive study for the degree entail studio courses with real-life group projects based in the Montréal metropolitan region, other planning and complementary courses, a summer internship, and a one-term independent project. The core M.U.P. program offers courses covering environmental, social, political, economic, and design aspects of urbanism, with further possibilities to focus on Transportation Planning or Urban Development and Urban Design.

The thesis-based M.Sc. program in Urban Planning, Policy, and Design is research-focused, entailing coursework and preparation of a thesis over three academic terms. Students with an interest in urban research, consulting, policy formulation, or further academic study will find that our M.Sc. allows them intellectual breadth and the opportunity to focus on a specific critical urban issue.

The Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) program in Urban Planning, Policy, and Design offers a multi-year research program for those who want to make original contributions to urban scholarship.