Master of Urban and Regional Planning

The Master of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) Program at CU Denver is one of the top planning programs in the US. Our fully accredited program uses Colorado as our classroom to engage in real-world, experiential learning opportunities and interact with planning and design practitioners and the community. We seek diverse students who share our passion for social justice and fostering healthy communities, regional sustainability, and equitable urbanism. We believe that successful city-building requires expertise, breadth, interdisciplinary understanding, and creativity. As part of the Urban and Regional Planning Department, our program looks beyond traditional professional silos and instead centers on issues at the forefront of planning practice. Our three program Pillars - Healthy Communities, Equitable Urbanism, and Regional Sustainability - form the basis of our research, instruction, and community outreach. We encourage all students to follow their passion and develop expertise in the areas that matter most to them. Thus, we offer a unique, self-directed elective curriculum that allows students to understand the breadth of the planning field while gaining the technical expertise demanded by the profession. The total number of credit hours required to earn the Master of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) degree is 54. To reach the 54 credit hour total, students must earn 36 credits by completing and passing the required core courses. Students must then earn an additional 18 credits by completing elective courses of their choice, with three (3) of those 18 consisting of an advanced skillsmethods elective.

Hold a baccalaureate or master’s degree from an accredited college or university or demonstrate completion of work equivalent to the baccalaureate or master’s degree given at CU Denver. In order to receive the MURP degree, a student’s cumulative grade point average (GPA) for all courses that count toward the required 54 credit hours must be 3.00 or higher. A student’s cumulative GPA may drop below 3.00 during their time in the MURP program, but ultimately the student’s cumulative GPA must be 3.00 or higher in order to graduate with the MURP degree. Students who fail to meet a 3.00 cumulative GPA will be put on probation. After two semesters on probation a student will be subject to suspension. For all courses taken as part of the MURP program, a student must receive a final grade of C minus (C-) or higher in order for that course to count toward the MURP 54 credit hour requirement. A student receiving a final grade in a core course below C- must retake the course in order to graduate. It should be recognized that while students can get credit for courses where their grade is as low as a C-, each grade below a B (3.00) must be matched with a grade that is correspondingly higher than a B in another class to eventually meet the minimum 3.00 cumulative GPA threshold. As of the effective date of this policy, currently enrolled students who took a class under the previous grading policy and received a grade between C- and C+, thereby not obtaining credit for the class towards the degree, can now count that class towards the degree credit retroactively.