Program Overview

The mission of the BAUP program is to provide an excellent liberal arts education and to prepare intellectually grounded students for careers in planning and planning-related fields. More broadly, the BAUP major aims to prepare entry level professional planners who are also capable of pursuing graduate study in planning and related fields and to growing into leaders in their professions.

An undergraduate planning education is both excellent preparation for a professional career in planning, and for advanced education in a range of other professional disciplines such as law or public administration. A career in planning requires knowledge of planning philosophy, analytical methods, problem formulation and resolution, law and local government, and the aesthetic, cultural, social, economic, ecological, and physical characteristics of human settlement. This preparation provides a comprehensive and coherent education in the humanities, modern analytical methods, the social and natural sciences, and the problem solving orientation of the professions. Planning thus constitutes an excellent liberal arts education.

Students may enter the planning profession with the Bachelor of Arts in Urban Planning (BAUP), a professional degree accredited by the Planning Accreditation Board. Other students go on to graduate school and obtain the Master of Urban Planning, either at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign or elsewhere. All undergraduate students combine planning courses that develop professional skills with courses from elsewhere in the University to gain a broad undergraduate education. Students continuing in the Department can reduce the time to earn the MUP degree from four semesters to three.

Day to day management of the BAUP program (including admissions) is the responsibility of the BAUP Program Coordinator. For questions about the Bachelor of Arts in Urban Planning, please contact:

Professor Rob Olshansky
BAUP Program Coordinator
Department of Urban and Regional Planning
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
111 Temple Buell Hall
611 Taft Drive, Champaign, IL 61820
Voice: 217-244-7681
Fax: 217-333-8703
E-mail: robo@uiuc.edu