About
The Urban Affairs and Planning (UAP) program at Virginia Tech offers two locations for graduate study, the main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia and our Alexandria, Virginia facility. The two UAP sites are jointly accredited by the Planning Accreditation Board and both offer a Master of Urban and Regional Planning and a doctorate in Planning, Governance & Globalization (through the School of Public and International Affairs ). In addition, students have the option of earning a dual master’s degree in UAP and several other disciplines, including natural resources, public administration, and landscape architecture.
The UAP program in Old Town Alexandria is ideally situated across the Potomac River from Washington, DC. Catering to both full- and part-time graduate students—with late afternoon and evening classes, as well as weekend modules—our research, teaching, and outreach benefit from being located in the heart of the nation’s seventh largest metropolitan area. Containing more that 5 million residents from both urban and rural environments—and hundreds of local governments, trade associations, non-profits, and international organizations and hundreds of federal agencies—the Washington DC metro area offers countless opportunities for engaging students and faculty on local, state, national, and international issues.
Many faculty members bring experience from these settings directly into the classroom, furthering the blending of concepts and practice. Students may be exposed to regional theory one day, while working hands-on with local leaders on a visioning exercise in a studio setting the next. Recent faculty research also spans the theoretical and practical range from the local to the international level, covering smart growth, metropolitan development patterns, high technology- and biotechnology-based economic development, housing policy, land recycling, historic preservation, infrastructure finance and planning, and scores of other topics.
We invite you to browse our web site to learn more about our existing program in urban affairs and planning at the Alexandria Center.