MA Urban Studies

The MA in Urban Studies is an interdisciplinary postgraduate programme that engages with the complexities of urbanisation in India and the wider Global South. At a time when cities are undergoing rapid and uneven transformation, the programme is designed to build capacities to understand a fast-changing world and respond to challenges that are at once social, ecological, economic, and political. It integrates theoretical inquiry, empirical analysis, and field-based learning, enabling students to critically examine urban processes while situating local experiences within broader global contexts and conduct meaningful research.

In India, urban-focused programmes are typically divided between technical and professional fields such as Urban Planning and Urban Design, and discipline-based social science approaches such as Urban Geography and Urban Sociology, with limited interaction between them. The MA Urban Studies addresses this divide by creating a space for dialogue across these domains, foregrounding a social science and humanities perspective while remaining attentive to questions of infrastructure, governance, and policy. Open to students from diverse academic backgrounds, the programme emphasises a syncretic approach to urbanism and establishes a strong connection between classroom learning and the field through sustained engagement with neighbourhood, urban, and regional contexts. The course also provides options for hands-on training in GIS and remote sensing, designed to address urban issues and challenges.

Grounded in the realities of the Global South, the programme recognises that urbanisation in India is shaped by the interplay of formal planning systems and the efforts of individuals and collectives operating at their margins, alongside the roles of the state, private sector, and civil society. It prepares a cadre of analytically rigorous and socially engaged practitioners who can bridge technical and social science perspectives, contribute to more just and sustainable urban processes, and respond thoughtfully to the evolving challenges of cities in India and beyond.

Please follow the PG Admissions page for more information on admission - https://aud.delhi.gov.in/admission/PG-Admissions/2026

Academic Community: Faculty

MA Urban Studies (90 credit structure for Batches to be admitted from 2026 onwards)

Structured across four semesters, the 90-credit programme combines core disciplinary courses, research methodology training, electives, geospatial methods (GIS and Remote Sensing), field engagement, a summer internship, studio-based learning, seminar and writing components, and a dissertation/action research project. The programme aims to prepare analytically rigorous and socially engaged practitioners and researchers capable of contributing to more just, inclusive, and sustainable urban futures.

Please follow the PG Admissions page for more information on admission - https://aud.delhi.gov.in/admission/PG-Admissions/2026

PROGRAMME STRUCTURE

Postgraduate Programme Structure

Year 1

Semester I

Major Course Code	Paper/Course	Paper/Course Title	Weightage Distribution	Load Allocation (L-T-P)	Credits
	DSC 1	Understanding the Urban			4
	DSC 2	Urban Environment and Ecology			4
	DSC 3	Transformation in Space and Society			4
	DSC 4	Research Methodology			4
	DSC 5	Geographical Information System			4
*Credits for Semester I*					20

Semester II

Major Course Code	Paper/Course	Paper/Course Title	Weightage Distribution	Load Allocation (L-T-P)	Credits
	DSC 6	Urban Planning, Policy and Governance			4
	DSC 7	Urban Space and Experience			4
	DSC 8	Understanding the field			4
	DSE 1, 2 & 3 (Select any 3 out of 5)	Quantitative Research Methods			4
		Remote Sensing			4
		Urban Rural Linkages			4
		Colonial Urbanism			4
		Cities and Social Formations			4
		Sustainable Urban Mobility			4
		Gender and the City			4
*Credits for Semester II*					24
Total Credit- Year 1 (20+24)					44

Year 2

Semester III

Major Course Code	Paper/Course	Paper Title	Weightage Distribution	Load Allocation (L-T-P)	Credits
	DSC 9	Urban Economy and Development			4
	DSC 10	Urban Disaster Management			4
	DSC 11	Urban Studio			4
	DSC 12	Writing Workshop			4
	DSC 13	Seminar			4
	DSC 14	Summer Internship			4
	DSE 4 (Select any 1 out of 3)	Urban Health and Wellbeing			4
		Cities, Infrastructure and Society			4
		Nature-based Solutions for Cities			4
*Credit for Semester III*					28

Semester IV

Major Course Code	Paper/Course	Paper Title	Weightage Distribution	Load Allocation (L-T-P)	Credits
	DSC 15	Dissertation/ Action Research			12
	DSC 16	Urban Finance			4
	DSC 17	Urban Practice			2
*Credits for Semester IV*					18
Total Credit- Year 2 (28+18)					46
Grand Total for all 4 Semesters					90

MA Urban Studies (64 credit structure for Batch admitted in 2025)

MA Urban Studies will be transacted over four academic semesters and one summer intersession. It consists of two foundation courses (total of 8 credits), four core courses (16 credits), two courses on research methodology (8 credits), and electives (total of 12 credits). Apart from taught courses, programme requires students to earn 20 credit worth of guided research work in the form of a 4-credit Internship, a 4-credit Studio project, a 2-credit Writing Workshop and a 10-credit Dissertation/Action Research component

Semester	Foundation courses	Core courses	Elective courses	Research skill & practicum	Credits
I	Transformations in Society & Space (4)	Understanding the Urban (4)		Research Methodology-I (4)	16
	Power, Justice & Discrimination (4)
II		Space & Experiences (4)		Research Methodology-II (4)	16
		Urban Planning and Policy (4)
		Urban Environment & Ecology (4)
Summer				Internship (4)	4
III			Electives (4)	Studio (4)	16
			Electives (4)
			Electives (4)
IV		Writing Workshop (2)		Dissertation/Action Research (10)	12
Credits	8	18	12	26	64

Eligibility

Any bachelor's degree with at least 45% marks (or an equivalent grade) from a recognised University (relaxation of 5% of marks for candidates belonging to ST/SC/PwD Categories). Candidates appearing for the final year examination of a degree can also apply.

Entrance Test (weightage 75%) and Interview (weightage 25%)

Total number of seats: 53

Foundation Courses

Transformations in Society and Space

Equips students with an understanding of social, environmental and political change across history. It is innovatively designed to begin a conversation on global history while building geographic literacy. Each unit looks at a particular social formation and the typology of space it produces (eg. plantation, port, mining town, Fordist manufacturing region, the Special Economic Zone).

Power, Justice and Discrimination

Prepares students to think about power, justice and discrimination as interconnected fields. The course considers how the question of distribution and discrimination has radically transformed the traditional, retributive or punitive idea of justice. Students are familiarised with the basics of contemporary normative debates on power and justice including the feminist distinction between an ethic of justice and an ethic of care.

Core Courses

Understanding the Urban

Familiarises students with ideas basic to urban studies as well as contemporary debates, and lies at the intersection of disciplines like sociology, political science, planning, geography and history. The material engages with theories of how urban space is produced and transformed, with the use of concepts such as suburbanisation, gentrification, extended and planetary urbanisation, southern urbanism, and world cities.

Space and Experiences

Systematically locates the urban experiences of the Global South within a wider perspective while focusing on the lived and designed aspects of urbanism. Includes discussions around informality, subaltern urbanisation, heritage, urban design, and the city in literature and the arts.

Urban Planning and Policy

Builds an understanding of the principles, tools and techniques through which planning and policy view and shape urban processes and places. Also considers the shifting policy frameworks (colonial, post-independence, recent and future-oriented ones) and their lives and afterlives on the ground.

Urban Environment and Ecology

Focuses on the ecological imbrications and environmental impacts of the urban process. Themes covered in the course include peri-urbanisation and land cover change, urban ecology, waste, pollution and health, environmental governance and justice.

Research Methodology

Two research methodology courses induct students into the traditions of research, and build capacities for the generation and analysis of diverse kinds of data, from the numerical to the qualitative. Techniques include cross tabulations, measures of central tendency, index numbers, PRA, questionnaire schedules and interviews, and ethnographic methods.

Electives on offer may include: Infrastuctures and Finance; Urban Agriculture; GIS; Gender and Urbanisation; Urban Health and Well-being.

Field-based learning in 2018-2019 included transects in different housing settlements of Delhi; documentation of land-use change in peri-urban Ghaziabad; study of work and infrastructures in Gurgaon/Manesar; study of planning, design and lived experiences in Chandigarh/Mohali; research on urban services, housing and environmental concerns in Bhopal.

In the Studio, students research the nature of an urban concern from different vantage points, identify and delineate the various aspects of the problem, bring their training in planning, policy, and ecology to bear on participatory methods, and collaboratively design an intervention that loops back before finalisation

On successful completion of the programme a student will be able to:

demonstrate familiarity with diverse urban and regional contexts
develop and understand interdisciplinary perspective on urban processes
comprehend and analyse quantitative, qualitative and spatial data
understand the ecological imbrications and materiality of the urban process
demonstrate competence in the use of tools and techniques through which practitioners view and shape urban processes and places
demonstrate confidence to intervene in urban/regional situations with a spirit of experimentation

Faculty The core faculty is trained from premier institutions in India and abroad and worked in diverse fields and locations. Distinguished academics and practitioners will also contribute to teaching and guidance as Visiting and Adjunct Faculty.

Careers Graduates of similar interdisciplinary MA programmes at AUD contribute to research institutions, the development sector, environmental organisations, and private consultancies. Many have secured admission for further studies in reputed institutions in India and abroad. In addition, MA Urban Studies graduates are expected to find employment in organisations working specifically in the field of urban research and practice.

Course Code	Course Name	Credit
SGA2US405	Urban Environment and Ecology	4
SGA2EL410	Urban Health and Well-being	4
SGA2US404	Urban Planning and Policy	4
SGA2US406	Urban Space and Experiences	4
SGA2US402	Understanding the Urban	4
SGA2FC401	Power, Justice, Discrimination	4
N/A	Research Methodology - I	4
N/A	Research Methods - 2	4
N/A	Research Methodology I	4
SGA1EL409	Rethinking Urbanization: A Gender Analysis	4
SGA2FC402	Transformations in Society and Space	4