Master of Community and Regional Planning (MCRP)

Electives can be courses (within SCARP or in other departments) that relate to your interests and can count towards your MCRP program course requirements. 

There are many possibly advantageous or relevant electives that may serve to complement and broaden your understanding of planning issues. Please talk to your faculty advisor, who may have advice depending on your particular lens on planning.

Please note:

• Some courses require you contact the course instructor and/or department offering the course for permission to be registered
• Course offering and availability are subject to change by the School offering the course.
• No more than 6 credits of undergraduate-level (300-400) courses will count towards your MCRP program.
• Courses can potentially be taken at other universities through the Western Deans' Agreement.
• Please make decisions about whether to take SCARP, UBC, or non-UBC courses in consultation with your faculty advisor. SCARP's established electives have a diverse and comprehensive array of lenses into the world of planning.

Electives as developing expertise

MCRP students sometimes want to develop additional expertise in subject areas that are covered in MCRP core courses. One way to develop such expertise is to take elective courses that address subject areas that are covered in the core courses.

To help guide MCRP students in their selection of electives, the following table indicates SCARP (PLAN) elective courses that address subject areas that are covered in core courses. Each core course (numbered from 500 to 513) indicates at least one elective course that relates to the core course.

Remember that electives are subject to availability term by term.

On second internships

As of the 2027/2028 academic year, PLAN 527B is an optional second internship after you have already fulfilled your required internship course (PLAN 527A). Taking PLAN 527 again (as PLAN 527B) represents an elective. 

Approval of PLAN 527 internships are contingent on program faculty. With each internship opportunity you’d like to undertake as a PLAN 527 course, you will coordinate with program faculty regarding whether the opportunity is an applicable and appropriate fit for the course. 

With PLAN527B especially, you will be approved in cases where program faculty determine that the second internship position would make a significant contribution to your learning and skills development beyond what you gained from your first internship. To this end, in order to receive credit for a second internship, the position either has to be with a different organisation than the first internship, or the position has to be for a different project than the first internship.  (for instance, in more than one sector, or applying different skills).

You may take PLAN 527 up to 2 times.
 

The Comparative Development Planning area of concentration represents critical analysis of the development/governance logics, processes, and policies shaping local conditions with respect to ongoing urban transition. The scope of this analysis includes local, regional, national, and global scales.

Comparative Development examines the importance of local knowledge, cultural specificity, and relevance of local political, social, and economic structures and forces, as well as their consequences for local trajectories of socioeconomic change and development. It covers the range of factors (e.g., elites, politics), forces (e.g., agency, capitals, modes of accumulation) and institutions (e.g., states, markets, communities, organizations) whose origins lie beyond the local.

This AoC prepares MCRP students for careers in the fields of local, national, regional, and international development planning, at various levels of:

• Governance
• Multilateral and bilateral development agencies
• Philanthropic foundations
• Volunteer-based organizations
• Social enterprises
• Non-profits
• Non-government and corporate organizations

Environmental Planning is concerned with the interaction of human settlements and the natural environment. Communities and governments make many decisions, policies, and plans that have profound impacts on the health and integrity of social and ecological systems. Environmental Planning responds to this problem, with an overarching goal of helping planners design human settlements in a way that minimizes impacts on natural ecosystems and minimizes risks to humans.

In addition to a general Environmental Planning AoC, some options for customized AoCs include:  Disaster and Risk Management Planning; Environment and Infrastructure Planning; and Environment and Health Planning.

This AoC prepares MCRP students for careers in environmental planning at various levels of government, non-profit organizations, and consulting companies. Graduates of this area have worked in such areas as sustainability planning, climate change adaptation planning, and disaster resilience planning.

Social Policy and Planning for Inclusive Communities is concerned with the always-uneven impacts of economic growth and change, and thereby of developing innovative ways of addressing urban and regional inequalities. It is also concerned with life-cycle planning issues such as child friendly cities and aging in place. From affordable housing and homelessness to the social integration of immigrants, urban Indigenous voice and wellbeing, accommodating transgender needs and more, the overarching goal is to support the development of inclusive, non-discriminatory communities.

This AoC prepares MCRP students for careers in social planning at various levels of government, Indigenous-serving organizations and communities, philanthropic foundations, volunteer-based organizations, social enterprises, and non-profits such as the Social Planning & Research Council of BC.

In addition to a general Social Planning & Policy for Inclusive Communities AoC, some more options for customized AoCs include:

• Housing Policy
• Indigenous Planning
• Feminist Planning
• Life Cycle Planning
• Food Security and Sovereignty
• Immigrant & Refugee Integration
• Inclusive Public Engagement
• Advocacy Planning

Transportation Planning is a field of expertise concerning the development of goals, policies, designs, and programs to facilitate the movement of people and goods; at scales ranging from a single street to an entire country.

Transportation planners seek to implement participatory processes through which diverse stakeholders can bring their knowledge, experience, and values to the development of transportation plans. Transportation planning considers a wide array of positive and negative transport system impacts, including community vitality, economic resilience, human health, and the natural environment.

In addition to a general Transportation Planning AoC, some options for customized AoCs include:  Transportation Planning and Health, Transportation and Land Use Planning, and Transportation and Urban Design.

This AoC prepares MCRP students for careers in transportation planning at various levels of government, non-profit organizations, and consulting firms. Graduates of this area have gone on to work in planning departments at various municipalities, transit agencies, and transport consultancies.

The study of urban design is one of the fastest growing fields in North American planning schools. New urban design concentrations and degree programs are appearing in many schools, to help create urban communities in which people can live, work, learn, play and recreate. This is an antidote to the large lots of single-family homes that are a car trip away from everything and that have come to characterize urban sprawl. Contemporary urban designers are conscious of the holism necessary for improving transit functions, public health, place-making, providing ecological services, and creating a lively public realm and livable neighbourhoods. Urban design, together with transportation planning, play a direct role in shaping the quality of life or urban dwellers.

The main objective of the Urban Design concentration is to give SCARP students interested in urban design a set of fundamental theories, models and planning tools that can help them understand and shape the built environment.  Faculty in SCARP have considerable expertise in urban design both as a stand-alone discipline and as an integral part of larger city making processes. The concentration at SCARP is particularly focused on the integration of social, ecological, hydrological, energy and transportation systems into urban design thinking. Courses are applied and typically include real projects with real clients working in current problems in nearby communities.