Home > Resources and Services > Student Affairs > Academic Advising > USP Overview
The Urban and Social Policy Concentration is
designed to provide students with an understanding of the policy challenges and opportunities that are unique to cities in both the developed and developing world. Cities now have responsibilities in virtually every policy arena from developing infrastructure, to sustainable economic development, to meeting the basic needs of safety and security and human welfare, including: education, health, and housing. These are general public policy issues that are especially affected by the urban context. Within the concentration, students have the option of focusing on an Urban Policy or Social Policy Track.
The Urban Policy Track is designed to provide students with the policy planning, implementation, and management skills to address policy challenges within the urban environment. Urbanization is a global trend that is guaranteed to continue during the 21st century; we are reaching an era in which more than half of the world’s population resides in cities. The Urban Policy Track prepares students to think critically about the economic, social, political, and technological forces that shape urban policy across the globe. The Social Policy Track equips students with the specific policy design and analytic tools to meet the challenges of poverty and income inequality, immigration and immigrant incorporation, growing racial and ethnic diversity, and changing gender relationships in societies around the world. Students in both tracks are also equipped with an understanding of how public-private partnerships, government contracting, and the proliferation of nongovernmental social service organizations are changing the parameters of urban and social policy at the local, state, and national levels.
Curriculum |
|
| Students have the option of choosing either the Urban Policy Track or the Social Policy Track. | |
Urban Policy Track Choose one of the following: |
Social Policy Track One of the following: |
|
|
Electives (both tracks) |
|
|
|
Past Employers of Graduates |
The Urban and Social Policy Concentration provides students with: |
|
• in-depth understanding of urban and social • strong program evaluation, critical thinking, • courses in the politics of policymaking, • multicultural interaction, teamwork, and • strong emphasis on real-world applications |