The Planning Accreditation Board requires this information be posted for the University of Colorado Denver Master of Urban and Regional Planning program.
A key element of the mission of the MURP program is to “teach our students the knowledge, skills and values they need to be confident, principled, and visionary planners, using Colorado as our classroom to engage students in real-world, experiential learning.”
In the semester before graduation, MURP students complete a Capstone project—a professional project for a real client. This project, conducted about a topic and for a client of the student’s own choosing, represents the culmination of our students’ academic careers and highlights their unique areas of interest and the skill set they gained through their self-directed elective curriculum. Evaluation by the clients, and by the students themselves, demonstrates the degree to which we have successfully achieved our mission.
Learning Outcome | % Clients Who Rated Their Capstone Student as “Outstanding” or “Above Average” |
Research | 88% |
Written Communication | 81% |
Graphic Communication | 81% |
Quantitative and Qualitative Methods | 92% |
Plan Creation and Implementation | 85% |
Planning Process Methods | 89% |
Leadership | 88% |
Professional Ethics and Responsibility | 79% |
Governance and Participation | 100% |
Growth and Development | 89% |
Sustainability and Environmental Quality | 100% |
Our flexible schedule and self-directed curriculum allow our students to work part-time in professional jobs or internships during the academic year. Additionally, non-resident students are eligible for residency after one year of living in Colorado (see our Colorado Residency page for more information.)
We are a member of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education's Western Regional Graduate Program (WICHE-WRGP), which allows any student who is a resident of one of the 15 western member states to qualify for Colorado resident tuition for their entire time in the MURP program. For more information, see the official WICHE-WRGP webpage.
Percentage of master’s graduates taking the AICP exam within 5 years who pass, graduating class of 2015: 72%
Since 2015, 83% of all MURP graduates who have taken the exam have passed.
Our graduates perform extremely well on the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) licensing exam. From 2004-14 (the most current data available), MURP program graduates:
[Source: www.planning.org/certification/passrates (accessed February 1, 2021)]
In 2012, the MURP Program developed a new vision and Strategic Plan. Please review the plan found here, but note that specific references to courses, programs, policies, centers, and other elements found in the Strategic Plan may no longer be current as their names or descriptions may have changed in our ongoing process of implementing the plan’s goals and objectives. The program is updating its strategic plan during the 2020-21 academic year.
Planners integrate knowledge, skills, and values to anticipate the future and improve the quality of decision-making affecting people and places. They understand the dynamics of cities, suburbs, regions, and the theory and practice of planning. They attend to the diversity of individual and community values. They develop and implement ethical plans, policies, and processes. The minimum curriculum criteria below reflect these educational goals. Programs are expected to be innovative and to experiment in developing curricular approaches that achieve the objectives of this standard.
The curriculum should demonstrate consistency and coherence in meeting the Program’s mission, goals, and objectives. While an accredited degree program must meet basic minimal performance criteria, PAB recognizes that programs may have different profiles with varying emphases. The Program being reviewed must demonstrate how its curricular content matches the profile emphasized in its overall mission. For example, a program emphasizing urban design would meet a different test than one emphasizing small town and rural planning.
The curriculum must include an instruction to prepare students to practice planning in communities with diverse populations and to develop skills necessary to create equitable and inclusive planning processes. Consistent with the Program’s mission and strategic plan, course content and co-curricular activities should seek to broaden understanding of historical and contemporary factors across the full range of practice settings in which program graduates work, including national, demographic, and political variation, and to promote awareness and respect for differing beliefs, values and expectations of populations served by the profession.
The Program shall provide a curriculum and offer instruction to best assure achievement of the knowledge, skills, and values that qualify graduates of accredited degree programs to enter professional planning practice. While programs may adopt such established and familiar learning activities as courses and internships, PAB is also receptive to program innovations that prove effective in meeting the criteria.
An accredited degree program must ensure that each graduate demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and values necessary for competent professional planning in diverse occupational and institutional settings. The criteria below provide a framework for judging the scope and quality of minimum educational outcomes.
The Program shall offer a curriculum that teaches students the essential knowledge, skills, and values central to the planning profession. These required components will be taught in such a manner that it is possible to demonstrate that every graduate has studied them. Ordinarily, this means that they are included in courses required of all students, although other approaches are possible.