- Watch for course eligibility carefully. Additional requirements may also be listed below.
- Non-SCARP students who wish to take eligible SCARP courses may contact info.scarp@ubc.ca to enquire.
- For course dates and times, or more information, please consult UBC's Student Workday interface.
- While SCARP hopes to offer the courses listed here frequently, unavoidable circumstances or changes may impact availability of instructors to teach certain electives. Being listed on this webpage does not guarantee a course is currently offered.
- Course registration is updated and communicated as soon as possible.
- Are you an undergrad student looking to take a graduate course?
Courses
PLAN 541 : Planning Studio
Collaborate with classmates and community, municipal, and private sector organizations in a mini-consultancy capacity to complete a real-world planning project for a real-world clients or project partners.
- Level
- Master's
- Eligibility
- Enrolled in MCRP
PLAN 542 : City Planning as a Craft
This course will explore the approach, roles, styles, and essential skills of planners in the normal situations of practical urban planning. Typical planning formats will be surveyed: area planning; policy planning; development management. Regulatory tools, development economics, practical urban design, and applied sustainability will be emphasized.
- Level
- Master's
- Eligibility
- UBC Graduate Student
PLAN 543 : ICP Practicum
The ICP Practicum consists of (1) the Studio, which provides students an opportunity to experience service directly with an Indigenous community/agency, and (2) the Capstone, which allows students to articulate and demonstrate their competency developed in Indigenous community planning.
- Level
- Master's
- Eligibility
- UBC Graduate Student
PLAN 548A : Current Issues in Planning: Planning for Health Equity
- Level
- Master's
- Eligibility
- Enrolled in MaP/MScP
PLAN 548B : Current Issues in Planning: Planning for Just Energy
- Level
- Master's
- Eligibility
- Enrolled in MaP/MScP
PLAN 548E : Current Issues in Planning: LED Theory, Issues and Applications
Local Economic Development (LED) is centered on local resources, capacity and leadership to build sustainable communities, towns and cities. The course will introduce students to the principles, approaches and technical tools (such as location quotients, shift share analysis, etc.) of LED through lessons and case studies drawn from Canadian and international contexts.
- Level
- Master's
- Eligibility
- UBC Graduate Student
PLAN 548L : Current Issues in Planning: Urban Transport Systems
This course provides an overview of multi-modal urban transportation systems, including key characteristics, interactions, and analytical techniques. There are no prerequisites for the course, but some quantitative analysis is required and students should be comfortable working with spreadsheet software.
- Level
- Master's
- Eligibility
- UBC Graduate Student
PLAN 548M : Current Issues in Planning: Urban Planning and Policy in the Global South
This course examines urban planning and policy in the Global South. We analyze the place of urbanization, and urban settlements more broadly, in the diverse and rapidly changing countries in the Global South. We address urbanization, relevant for students hoping to pursue professional planning work or engage in research on urbanization and development. We will examine urban policy decisions and draw on case studies and examples from around the world to examine how these policies play out. We introduce the historical context for urban growth in the Global South; examine colonial policies towards urban settlements and urbanization and the ways in which post-independence governments have built upon and departed from these approaches to planning; address policy and paradigms regarding the challenges facing contemporary urban settlements in the Global South; and examine overlaps between experiences in the Global South and North.
- Level
- Master's
- Eligibility
- UBC Graduate Student
PLAN 548Q : Current Issues in Planning: Futures Planning
In the process of planning with change and planning for change, planners indelibly play an active role in shaping the future. It is this relationship to the future that makes planning fundamentally transformative—where plans and policies can wield long-term effects on people and places (for better or worse). Yet, the notion of “futures” as a crucial dimension of planning is often understudied. This course will engage with the imaginative and visionary potential of planning.
- Level
- Master's
- Eligibility
- UBC Graduate Student
PLAN 548R : Current Issues in Planning: Urban Analytics
As more aspects of daily life become digitally mediated, planners can study urban processes in new ways. Urban analytics is an umbrella term for using new data forms in combination with computational approaches to better understand cities. While increasing data availability allows us to ask new questions –or shed new light on enduring ones– planners need to understand and weigh the risks and opportunities of this data revolution. This course teaches the fundamentals and application of python coding for urban data science. Students work on mini-research projects to apply their knowledge, and develop literacy in urban analytics publications and the field’s quickly evolving debates.
- Level
- Master's
- Eligibility
- Enrolled in MaP/MScP
PLAN 548S : Current Issues in Planning: Smart Ethical Cities
Major drivers of change are influencing global cities including urbanization, climate change and disruptive technology such as AI. At the same time, large future investments in infrastructure and technology are required to meet the essential needs of citizens while improving the sustainability and livability of cities. However, there are many uncertainties over the potential unintended consequences from the exponential growth of data, and large-scale deployment of technology. Using global city case-studies this class will critically assess the ethical, societal and environmental risk and impacts of new urban data, technology, and infrastructure.
- Level
- Master's
- Eligibility
- UBC Graduate Student
PLAN 548T : Current Issues in Planning: Public Transit Planning
This course introduces types of transit planning, strategic to operational, across scales and times. Students will explore the technical tools and methods that support values-based planning as well as the range of community values which can be expressed by a community’s transit system. You'll learn from a range of practicing professionals and each other. You’ll develop plans and strategies within a context of opportunities and constraints, including geography, resource availability and operational considerations. Learning will be evaluated based on a combination of individual quizzes, group activities and a final project.
- Level
- Master's
- Eligibility
- Enrolled in MCRP
PLAN 549C : Master's Thesis
Research and preparation of a thesis on a topic in public policy or professional practice.
- Level
- Master's
- Eligibility
- Enrolled in MaP/MScP
PLAN 550A/PLAN 550B : Directed Studies
In special cases and with the approval of the MCRP Program Chair, a student may study an advanced topic under the direction of a faculty member.
- Level
- Master's
- Eligibility
- UBC Graduate Student
PLAN 558 : The Role of Theory in Planning Research
The instructor will offer an overview of benchmarks in the evolution of planning theory, and its relationship with political movements and transitions in governance and policy values and models, as well as principal urban theory drawn from the fields of sociology, geography, anthropology, political science, and cultural studies.
- Level
- Master's
- Eligibility
- Enrolled in MaP/MScP