Founding year

Established in 1965, the U.P. School of Urban and Regional Planning (UP SURP) remains to date the only graduate training institution in Urban and Regional Planning in the Philippines. It has been at the forefront of development planning efforts in the country through its four-fold mandate of graduate education, research, training and extension services since its inception.

University location

The SURP is located along E. Jacinto St. corner Magsaysay St. The building is a three-storey structure which hosts the offices of the Dean, Faculty Room, Office of the Research and Publications, Office of Training and Extension Service, the SPRING Room, Libary and the Graduate and Administrative Offices, while the Pre-fab building serves as classrooms and workshop/seminar rooms.

Number of students

The SURP has a population of more or less 300 graduate students coming from both government and private sectors. Students admitted to the School come from multi-disciplinary fields, such as architecture, economics, business administration, engineering, geography, law or public administration.

Number of international student

Aside from the SPRING students, at present, the SURP has academic and institutional linkages with the Seoul National University of Science and Technology, the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia and the University of British Columbia in Canada.

Number of staff

The SURP has eleven administrative staff serving as support personnel for its different sections – Office of the Dean, Office of Graduate Studies and library. It has also five research and training staff assigned in the Research/Publications and Training Offices.

Number of Faculties

The SURP has a full time faculty complement of  17, twelve of whom are Ph.D. degree holders in various planning and planning-related fields. The rest are Master’s degree holders  in various fields of planning like Urban and Regional Planning and Resource and Regional Planning.

SPRING Programme 2nd year

The degree program  called the  Master of Science in Regional Development Planning has a joint diploma and transcript of records issued by both universities. The 2^nd year curriculum consists of seven courses and a master’s thesis comprising a total of 29 units of academic course work.

Profile of the second year – focus point

The second year at the SURP in Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines provides the practical application of the knowledge gained during the first year. Extensive field-studies dealing with urban and regional development planning ensure practical relevance and exposure by the students in the gamut planning in a developing country. Additional classroom exercises/seminars deal with social, economic, administrative and political aspects of development planning. The program concludes with a Master’s thesis, in which students demonstrate their ability to conduct scientific research.

Short overview of the courses (modules, courses & topics)

A major requirement is an extensive field workshop aimed at the preparation of a comprehensive development plan for a particular study area in the Philippines (a province or a cluster of municipalities), thus providing training that is both theory and practice-oriented. The study site is carefully selected, usually in co-operation with the  local governments who themselves have a strong interest in the output: Research Methods in Planning, Regional Planning Analysis and Techniques, Special Problems/Topics in Regional Planning, and Master’s Thesis.