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

The Urban and Regional Planning Program at East Carolina University is the only accredited program in North Carolina to offer the BS 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 program is one of 15 accredited undergraduate planning degree programs and the sole PAB-accredited undergraduate degree program in North Carolina. The curriculum has a strong multidisciplinary orientation based on the arts and sciences, design and related professions. The primary objective of the program is to prepare professional planners with a strong foundation in the knowledge, skills and values of planning, ready to take leadership roles in sustainable development and quality of life improvement in their communities.

In 1960, ECU began to offer courses in urban and regional planning and in 1974 the BS in urban and regional planning was approved, making ECU the first institution in North Carolina to offer an undergraduate planning degree.  Over 1000 students have graduated from the East Carolina Planning Program 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. ECU is located in Greenville, 87 miles west of the Atlantic Ocean, 90 miles east of Raleigh, and 265 miles south of Washington, D.C.  The eastern North Carolina region enjoys a relatively mild climate with an average summer temperature of 84 degrees F. and an average winter temperature of 44 degrees F.