Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Metropolitan Planning, Policy and Design

The Ph.D. in Metropolitan Planning, Policy and Design helps meet society’s need for researchers, scholars, teachers, and leaders to make our metropolitan areas sustainable and resilient. The degree is managed by the Department of City & Metropolitan Planning in the College of Architecture + Planning but it is designed to facilitate the interdisciplinary culture of the University of Utah. Depending on the nature of prior graduate work, the doctoral degree will require between 60 and 82 credit hours, or more, and extend a minimum of six full time semesters of course work. Along with rigorous admission standards, admitted students will have posed a clear direction in pursuing doctoral studies. The doctoral degree includes core, dissertation field, qualifying examination, and dissertation benchmarks. The core is composed of a sequence of semester-long doctoral seminars in metropolitan planning, metropolitan policy, metropolitan design, research design, technical writing, and teaching methods for a total of 21 credits. Doctoral students will complete a minimum of 21 credits in a “dissertation” field including courses outside the Department. (Students without a master degree in planning will need to take up to 22 credits in core planning courses.) The qualifying examination will demonstrate the ability of the candidate to undertake independent research through the preparation of a paper sufficient for submission to a scholarly journal; the paper itself will include literature review, theory, research design, research execution, findings, and conclusions. The dissertation will then be proposed, prepared, and defended. The doctoral program will be available to students on a full-time and part-time basis. In either case, admission will be selective (see below) to (a) assure the number of students being managed by the faculty is never very large and that (b) those admitted have demonstrated their ability to complete demanding, long-term commitments within a reasonable period of time. The Ph.D. in Metropolitan Planning, Policy and Design will be guided by a particular philosophy. Students entering the program will demonstrate a clear purpose in pursuing doctoral studies; this assures direction in students’ doctoral work. Second, they will demonstrate their ability to complete challenging projects. Third, students’ interests will be highly correlated with several faculty members to assure a critical mass of mentoring. Finally, a least one member of the faculty will be the principal mentor including chairing relevant student doctoral committees and seeking funding support if needed. The objective is to assemble a group of highly motivated, self-directed, and talented students who show great promise to complete the degree and succeed in society after graduation.