At an April 17 Senate meeting, the university approved a new certificate in Urban Planning Studies, which will be available in September.
According to the Department of Geography and Planning, the certificate “provides a balanced, multi-disciplinary approach to the study of cities by incorporating the main disciplinary foundations of the study of urban planning including social planning, municipal regulation, transportation, real estate law, resource management, land use planning, and community relations.”
In an interview with The Journal, Associate Professor of Geography and Planning, Beverley Mullings, said the 12-unit certificate program could be taken alongside any degree program at Queen’s.
“Urban planning is often a professional degree, meaning students who are undergraduates very rarely will find an urban planning undergraduate degree program,” she added.
Mullings said the certificate would give students an opportunity to learn more about urban planning and gain credentials in the field.
“It’s a very competitive field to get into a graduate program, so the certificate helps students who are interested in planning at Queen’s to actually boost their credentials and perhaps their opportunities to enter such a program,” she said.
Students who enroll in the certificate will be expected to take two core course called “Cities: Geography, Planning and Urban Life” and “Geographies of the Global
Political Economy.”
Mullings highlighted that “as cities expand and boom, this is an area of employment that has been placed for the last two years as one of top 25 jobs in the country to have.”
“There is an increasing demand for planners,” she said.
Students who are enrolled in a degree plan alongside a certificate can count up to 50 per cent of the units required for the certificate towards both the certificate and the degree plan.
“A lot of it is about how planners can be the interface between communities and municipalities, communities and the private sector, in ways that create sustainability,” she said.
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Academics, certificate, Geography and Planning
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