The Master of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) educates planning professionals, able to make plans and also to become leaders in the field. Our students engage in practice from the moment they join us, and we use the real planning issues and processes of our region, state, and bioregion as the basis for much of our teaching and research. Experiential learning is an integral component of the program, which requires an internship and a workshop project that is client‐focused, community‐based, and culminates in a professional product to serves as a capstone to the program.
The MURP is a two‐year, 72 credit professional degree program designed for those interested in working as professional planners. Our core curriculum focuses on the history and theory of planning as a field, plan implementation, analytical methods, and the dynamics of metropolitan development. MURP students have the opportunity to customize their education to meet particular scholastic and professional objectives. Each student also chooses a pathway that allows them to specialize in fields such as Community Development, Economic Development, Environment, Land Use, and Transportation.
Our students do award-winning projects that have tangible impacts. In 8 of the past 12 years, a Planning Workshop project has won a national award from the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP), more than any other planning program in the United States.
Our faculty are engaged in scholarship addressing a wide range of issues: gentrification and displacement, urban heat islands, bicycling, urban agriculture, food justice, homelessness, the maker movement, tiny homes (aka accessory dwelling units), carbon taxes, equity planning, autonomous vehicles, disaster recovery, food trucks and carts, and collaborative planning processes. Our faculty are directly involved in planning and policy in Portland and beyond. In addition to conducting impactful research, we serve on the boards of OPAL Environmental Justice, A Home for Everyone, Home Forward, and the TransitCenter to name a few.
MURP faculty and students have a front-row seat to innovative planning efforts going on in the community, as well as an expectation that PSU, and the MURP program in particular, will be more than just a spectator, but part of the action through engaged student learning and faculty scholarship. But we’re not just about Portland. Our work and our impact goes beyond the urban growth boundary to include regional, national, and international research, study abroad, and internship opportunities. We believe that planning practice addresses our common future in order to make places better—more just, sustainable, and prosperous. We promote equity and foster an environment of cultural difference and diversity among faculty and students.
- Our employment rates one year after graduation are regularly around 90%.
- Median salaries one year out for MURP graduates are usually $50,000 - $60,000.
- About half of our grads go into the public sector, 40% into the private sector (e.g., planning consulting firms, developers), and 10% into the non-profit sector.
- About two-thirds of MURP graduates stay in the Portland metro region; about three-quarters stay in the Pacific Northwest.
Accreditation
The Master of Urban and Regional Planning program is fully accredited by the Planning Accreditation Board.