Planners are agents of positive change in the world. We:
- Protect and improve cities and communities
- Listen to and believe diverse peoples about what they need to thrive
- Bring knowledge from all over the sciences and humanities about how to solve today's biggest challenges
- Partner with people affected by injustice to transform tomorrow and leave no one behind
We tackle some of the biggest challenges facing us today, including:
- Climate change's effects on regions and communities
- The housing crisis
- Inequality and injustice
- Repairing Indigenous injustice and relationships
- Helping communities prevent or persevere through disasters
Planners are part of governments, grassroots movements, local community and neighbourhood groups, health authorities, transit authorities, and so much more of what makes cities, regions, and communities thrive.
"It is the way of planners that we believe a better world can always be created."
-Heather Campbell, Director, UBC SCARP
Here's a deeper-dive:
Planning sounds great, but why is UBC SCARP special?
In the words of SCARP student Meryem Belkadi:
"SCARP's ethics and values align with mine in terms of social justice, poverty alleviation, and equity advocacy. SCARP professors are known throughout the world for their work and advocacy. Also, as a North African Muslim woman, I was convinced that I would thrive in a place as diverse and inclusive as SCARP."
More about us
Excellence
UBC SCARP is one of the larger Planning schools in North America and we're a leader in education and research. Our professional Master's program is uniquely accredited by institutions in two countries.
Vision
We put our knowledge in action to plan in partnership. We believe Planning is concerned with the well-being of communities, whether rural, metropolitan, or worldwide. We see our role as to facilitate equitable change to help people. We innovate and challenges conventions, and we do our work in partnerships with communities and populations affected by the big decisions.
This includes regard for Indigenous equity and dignity, and Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing. Our partnership with Musqueam Indian Band is unlike any Planning School in the world: together we create curriculum and plan for the future.
Community
SCARP is a community of students, alumni, community partners, faculty, and staff who all comprise who we essentially are. Our students are torchbearers of their own close-knit community and represent the School’s excellence with their real-world projects. Our alumni keep close ties to share information, to network, and to mentor students. An ever-growing suite of business partners symbiotically present real problems for students to tackle in partnership.
But none of this happens automatically: not only do faculty students and staff invigorate the community well beyond the academic, but individuals in the student body partner with the School to enrich each academic year with events, information sharing, camaraderie, and community panache. This flourishing planning community thrives on student initiative, partnership, and leadership, whether to activate the student body in camaraderie or to realize your vision of who we are and what we could become.
A Faculty of Applied Science UBC School
SCARP is a member of UBC’s Faculty of Applied Science, which includes a unique constellation of disciplines. Our faculty’s core purpose is to discover, design, innovate, provide unwavering top-tier education and champion a community of responsible professionals.
Being in the Faculty of Applied Science enables planning students and faculty to work alongside other professionally oriented disciplines, such as architecture, nursing, and engineering. These disciplines often overlap our own priorities and research insights, and synergies between us benefit us all, as schools and as professional fields.
UBC is a world-leading centre of teaching, learning, and research excellence. Students benefit from a massive hub of support with opportunities to hone your professional development, skills, systems knowledge, research networks, and career-building skills. With over 400,000 alumni in 160 countries, graduates enter the broader world with the recognition of being trained by a UBC school.