SUPA Overview
SUPA ranks as one of the best graduate schools of public affairs in the nation in the US News and World Report Graduate School Rankings.
The school was originally established in 1967 as the Institute of Urban Studies, by an act of the Texas Legislature. The institute’s legislatively mandated mission is to conduct research and provide technical assistance to Texas city and county governments and public agencies, and to offer education and teaching opportunities for individuals either already in or contemplating public-service careers.
In 1990, after significant expansion of staff and programs, the organization that grew up around the institute became the School of Urban and Public Affairs. The Institute continues to operate as an integral part of the school.
SUPA currently offers five programs of graduate-level study: the Master of Arts in Urban Affairs, the Master of City and Regional Planning, the Master of Public Administration, the PhD in Urban and Public Administration and the PhD in Urban Planning and Public Policy. In addition, the school participates in graduate, dual-degree programs with Architecture, Civil Engineering, Criminology and Criminal Justice, Education, Environmental Science, Landscape Architecture, Nursing, and Social Work. It also cooperates with the UTA colleges of Engineering and Science in an interdisciplinary program leading to master’s and doctoral degrees in environmental science and engineering.
Certificate programs the school offers are the certificates in Development Review, Geographic Information Systems, Urban Journalism, Urban Nonprofit Management and the Certified Public Manager Program.
SUPA offers three “minors” programs for undergraduates: one in public administration, one in urban planning and the environment, and one in urban affairs and public policy.
In addition, SUPA offers an undergraduate degree program in interdisciplinary studies (INTS). The INTS degree allows students to develop an individualized degree plan that focuses on the students academic or career goals.
These individualized degrees allow students to develop academic themes or topics that fall outside the usual disciplinary boundaries.
A distinguishing feature of the school is its location in the heart of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, a rich urban laboratory of more than 200 cities with a total population of approximately 6.1 million. This complex urban arena offers a wide array of opportunities for student projects, internships and employment. SUPA faculty, staff and students work on “real-life” urban and public affairs projects in cooperation with city governments, public agencies and nonprofit organizations through the school’s Center for Economic Development Research and Service (CEDRAS) and its Center for International Research, Education, and Development (CIRED), funded by the US Department of State.
More than 900 students have earned graduate degrees at SUPA. Many hold key management positions in local governments, public agencies and nonprofit organizations nationwide. Currently, SUPA has a diverse student body of approximately 225 students. Many of these students also hold full- or part-time positions in government, private or nonprofit organizations.
Located on the fifth floor of University Hall on the main UTA campus, SUPA has modern classrooms and its own state-of-the-art computer laboratory, with GIS database-management and spreadsheet capabilities, as well as access to the Internet and World Wide Web.
SUPA offers courses in the afternoons, evenings, and on weekends to accommodate working professionals. It also offers online core courses and intersessional courses between semesters.