Urban Studies is a multi-disciplinary field of study that offers students an in-depth understanding of cities, the processes that give rise to them, and their social and environmental consequences.

Urbanisation happens at a scale and pace never seen before in human history. To understand society today, we must ask urban questions. If you are a student who is curious about the city, enthralled by its architecture, energised by its culture, troubled by its social injustices, worried about its environmental harms, or enthusiastic about its economic and creative potentials, you will find a unique liberal arts opportunity in the Yale-NUS Urban Studies major.

Urban Studies at Yale-NUS

The Urban Studies major draws on the insights and approaches of a range of disciplines, including sociology, geography and environmental science, architecture and planning, political science, anthropology, economics and history. The programme takes full advantage of our location and offers field-based learning opportunities in Singapore and other parts of Asia.

Students may choose courses that offer breadth, or construct a pathway with social science, humanities or environmental emphasis.

Students completing the Urban Studies major will:

• Understand processes of urbanisation from a range of perspectives (social, political, economic, cultural & environmental)
• Be familiar with key theoretical frameworks for explaining and analysing urbanisation and urban society
• Become familiar with a number of cities and urban forms – past and present, developed and less developed, planned and unplanned
• Learn about urban policy and planning frameworks
• Develop skills in spatial reasoning, including GIS and related modes of data gathering, analysis and visualisation
• Gain practical experience through field-based, experiential learning
• Acquire research and critical thinking skills that are transferable to a range of scholarly, social, policy and community contexts

Urban Studies Careers

Students who major in Urban Studies may go on to pursue careers in the private and corporate sector, civil service, not-for-profit sector, and education sector. Urban Studies is well suited to those with interests in public policy, social work, international and community development, planning and architecture, heritage and tourism, consulting and marketing, real estate and infrastructure management.

Our graduates have found jobs in the public, private and non-government sectors. These statistics show the fields Yale-NUS graduates from the first three cohorts (2017 – 2019) have entered:

• 3% in Financial Sector
• 8% in Technology and Start-ups
• 15% in Education and Research
• 19% in Urban Planning-related
• 23% in Public Sector
• 27% in Consulting

The list below provides a snapshot of the companies and organisations that our Urban Studies graduates have joined after Yale-NUS:

• Ascendas Singbridge
• Centre for Liveable Cities
• Goldman Sachs
• Housing Development Board
• Ministry of Manpower
• PwC
• Temasek
• Urban Redevelopment Authority
• Wellington Management

Urban Studies Graduate Education Opportunities

Urban Studies students are also well-prepared for graduate school programmes, both academic and professional. They are prepared for disciplinary-defined, higher degree programmes in anthropology, sociology, development studies, human geography, environmental studies and urban studies. They are also prepared for professional higher degree programmes in architecture, planning, international development, social work, community development and public policy.

Based on the latest graduate data, Yale-NUS Urban Studies graduates have gone on to do the following postgraduate programmes:

• MSc Urbanization and Development, London School of Economics
• MSc City Design and Social Sciences, London School of Economics
• Masters of Public Administration, Economic and Political Development, Columbia University
• Masters in Urban Science, Singapore University of Technology & Design
• Master of Arts in Situated Practice, The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London
• MPhil Development Studies, University of Oxford