PhD

The Ph.D. Program offers advanced study of critical urban development challenges facing cities and metropolitan areas in the 21st century, blending urban planning and public policy perspectives. The Program provides a unique and powerful resource for the advanced study of challenging urban problems and their complex remedies. Students participate in an interdisciplinary learning community of faculty and research staff conducting a mix of applied and theoretical studies. Graduates will leave as scholars well prepared for positions as university professors, professional researchers or leadership roles in the public, private or nonprofit sectors.

Students learn advanced theory, methods and related research literature in one of five areas of specialization:

1. Community Development

2. Economic Development

3. International Development

4. Physical Planning

5. Urban Transportation

The Ph.D. curriculum combines core requirements in theory and methods with more specialized course work in each area. Opportunities for advanced research training and faculty supervised research projects are available within the following research centers on campus:

• Great Cities Institute

• Center for Urban Economic Development

• Voorhees Center for Neighborhood and Community Improvement

• Urban Transportation Center

• Survey Research Laboratory

• Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy

• City Design Center

• UPP's Urban Data Visualization Laboratory

The program also builds on the University of Illinois Great Cities Initiative, providing students with a variety of research related training and educational internships throughout the Chicago metropolitan region, the nation and the world.

For detailed information about program requirements, visit the PhD Section of the Current Students page.

For information about current PhD students, you can download the CUPPA PhD Student Booklet (4.6MB, pdf).

Download a partial list of graduates (61KB, doc) of the PhD program and their dissertation topics.