A four-week program at UBC
for international students who crave wisdom and adventure
Discover a Canadian Vancouver lens
and learn about a field that might inspire you!
While learning about these topics, you have a chance to immerse yourself in Canada's diverse culture and practice language skills and trades, as well as learn a new perspective in your own field or passion. In addition to interactive lectures and tours of the region, you can take part in a variety of social activities where you will meet students from other universities and UBC.
Some past VSP SCARP students on their experience
Institution: University of the Philippines
Alessandra Nicole Baldovino
"My time at VSP with SCARP was unforgettable. It taught me more about planning and the importance of sustainability initiatives for the future of our cities and communities, especially in the context of climate change. I learned how planning takes place in the real world and the drivers behind these changes. It was an immersive and fun opportunity to go on field trips, get to know classmates from different cultures, and explore the city of Vancouver. I will dearly look back at all the memories we made at the beautiful campus and with people from UBC."
Institution: University of Edinburgh
Alexandra Knoblauch, 2023
"I did not know what planning and project management involved before coming to UBC for the VSP programme with SCARP. The course taught me a lot about planning and I feel more confident now in organising projects. Besides learning new skills, I met a lot of new, friendly and interesting people during my time at UBC. Throughout the course we have bonded and grown together and I believe we will remain friends for a long time. I will always think back of the friendships and memories I have made at UBC and wish that I could have stayed for longer."
Signing up
The fee per student for each 2025 program package is $5,975 CAD, which includes course materials, medical insurance, group airport transfer and city tour, shared accommodation on UBC campus, orientation and farewell events, and potential social activities (optional trips may require an additional fee).
Students are responsible for the cost of food, transportation, and personal expenses.
Eligibility
Find out if you qualify for the program. To apply for the Vancouver Summer Program, you must be an undergraduate student* at a post-secondary institution outside of Canada and at least 18** years of age on the first day of the program. More details below.
Accommodations
Accommodations are in UBC’s on-campus residences and feature Easy access to classrooms, recreation and campus amenities, free Wifi in lobby and wired high speed Internet in guest rooms, and laundry on site.
2025 VSP course offerings at UBC SCARP
Transforming Cities for Just and Sustainable Futures
Just Sustainability Transitions: Designing Urban Innovations for Justice and Systemic Change
Offered in June 2025 course package.
Applications close March 21, 2025.
Are you passionate about sustainability and social justice as drivers of transformative change? This course invites you to explore how emerging urban innovations and technological advancements can be designed to facilitate just sustainability transitions. In Just Sustainability Transitions, you will envision sustainable futures and explore practical pathways to achieve them, gaining tools to collaboratively design and drive change across environmental, economic, social, technological, and governance dimensions.
Through hands-on learning, this course blends cutting-edge research and theories with critical reflection and real-world action. You will engage with key topics such as societal change, urban justice, smart cities, social and environmental movements, transition management, and systemic design. Emphasizing diverse perspectives and inclusive collaboration, the course equips you to develop sustainable solutions at both local and systemic levels.
Working in interdisciplinary teams, you will address real-world challenges through peer-based learning, applying design thinking and co-creation strategies to design urban innovation. By the end of the course, you will critically evaluate sustainability processes at multiple scales, reflect on ethical dilemmas, and shape your own vision of just transitions. This course provides a unique opportunity to engage with sustainability transitions across sectors and disciplines, preparing you to influence the future of urban innovation and just transitions.
Cities Experimenting with Sustainability Transformations
This course explores key conceptual and practical aspects of sustainability transformations, focusing on global case studies of urban experimentations. Cities worldwide are grappling with unprecedented challenges as they strive to meet ambitious environmental targets. Managing these transformations requires a holistic understanding that goes beyond the capacities of any single organization, encompassing complex economic, technical, political, and social dimensions.
Urban experimentation and social innovation laboratories (labs) are emerging as crucial tools for addressing these multifaceted challenges. This course provides an in-depth examination of such labs, with a special focus on Vancouver as a real-world laboratory. You will explore how urban labs foster collaborative solutions through innovative approaches to sustainability.
By engaging with case studies from around the globe, you will gain insights into the methods and practices used to facilitate urban sustainability transitions. The course introduces key lab methodologies and offers practical skills applicable to uncovering and implementing sustainability transformations. By the end of the course, you will be equipped with the knowledge and tools to critically assess and contribute to sustainability efforts in urban contexts, preparing you to work across sectors to address global environmental challenges.
Prerequisites: No prerequisites
Minors (students aged under 19 at the start of the program): Not Accepted
Your instructor
Peyvand Forouzandeh, SCARP PhD student
Peyvand's research investigates the governance dynamics within collaborative urban experimentations in Canadian cities. By examining various cases of urban sustainability experimentations across Canada, she seeks to identify the mechanisms and factors that can steer these experiments towards achieving transformative impacts and learning.
Each PhD student at SCARP works under a Research Supervisor in our faculty. Peyvand Forouzandeh's Research Supervisor, Associate Professor Maged Senbel, researches focuses on public engagement in long term neighbourhood planning. He strives to make planning more accessible to both expert and non-expert audiences. SCARP students benefit from some of the keenest minds and research inquiries in the field.
Planning for Sustainable Food Systems in an Era of Food Price Hike
Offered either in:
June 2025 course package - Applications close March 21, 2025
July 2025 course package - Applications close April 5, 2025
The world market prices of food commodities have increased dramatically since 2006-07 and 2010-11, reversing the long-run pattern of declining prices of food since the past 50 years, with significant impacts for low-income groups who routinely spend a large portion of their income on food consumption. This course will provide students with an overview of the key challenges undermining food systems sustainability in the contemporary era, especially as they relate to the increasingly frequency of food price shocks. This includes attention to a range of demand and supply-side influences, including climatic and environmental stresses on food production, as well as the financialization of food commodities, among other factors. Students will gain an understanding of key theoretical precepts in this domain, including debates on food justice and food sovereignty, agroecology, and climate resilience. A comparative Global South and Global North lens will be adopted. The course will rely on lectures, classroom discussions and guest speakers from leading thinktanks such as the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Bank and International Food Policy Research Institute, to critically examine key underlying concepts.
Policy Evaluation for Planners
Policymakers are increasingly accountable to the public regarding the efficacy of their programs undertaken using tax funds. The class will offer hands-on experience, equipping students with the qualitative and quantitative skills necessary for policy analysis and program evaluation in government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and international bodies. Students will explore diverse methodologies for policy analysis, applying these frameworks to real-world scenarios. Key objectives include effective communication and professional conduct. Learners will be able to assess the trade-offs involved in policy changes, identify stakeholders affected by these changes, and utilize standard analytical tools to devise policy interventions.
Prerequisites: No prerequisites
Minors (students aged under 19 at the start of the program): Not Accepted
Your instructor
Khadija Anjum, SCARP PhD student
Khaijda's research investigates the gendered food security impact of food inflation.
Each PhD student at SCARP works under a Research Supervisor in our faculty. Khadija Anjum's Research Supervisor, Professor Nora Angeles, researches community and international development studies and social policy, participatory planning and governance, participatory action research, and the politics of transnational feminist networks, women’s movements and agrarian issues, particularly in the Southeast Asian region. SCARP students benefit from some of the keenest minds and research inquiries in the field.