Welcome to the Urban and Regional Planning Program
at East Carolina University!

The Urban and Regional Planning Program at East Carolina University is the oldest program in North Carolina to offer the B.S. degree in urban and regional planning. Urban and Regional Planning is a degree program within the Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences and the Department of Geography. 

The Planning Program is one of only 14 undergraduate planning degree programs that hold accreditation from the Planning Accreditation Board (PAB) within the United States and is the sole PAB accredited undergraduate degree in North Carolina. The curriculum of our program is designed to prepare competent professionals who have a strong foundation in theories, methods, and techniques of planning with specialty areas in urban and regional planning, coastal and environmental planning, urban design, and GIS applications in planning.

In 1960, ECU began to offer courses in urban and regional planning and three years later an undergraduate pre-planning minor was established. In 1974, the B.S. in urban and regional planning was approved, making ECU the first institution of higher learning in North Carolina to offer an undergraduate planning degree.  From a fledgling program with only a few students in 1963, the undergraduate planning curriculum has grown significantly.  Over the past four decades, more than 1000 students have graduated with an undergraduate major or minor in planning or a graduate concentration.  With the current steady demand for planners in the public and private sector, the Urban and Regional Planning program enjoys a very high job placement percentage for all of its graduates.

East Carolina University is the third largest university in the state of North Carolina. The city of Greenville has a population of about 65,000 and is located approximately 87 miles west of the Atlantic Ocean, approximately 90 miles east of our state capitol in Raleigh, and approximately 265 miles south of our nation's capitol, Washington, D.C.  The eastern North Carolina region enjoys a relatively mild climate and experiences all four seasons of the year with an average summer temperature of 84 degrees F. and an average winter temperature of 44 degrees F. 

For more information about our program, please contact our program director, Dr. Mulatu Wubneh (wubnehm@mail.ecu.edu).