The field of
Environmental and Habitat Planning is extremely diverse. Local governments and
regional agencies employ professional planners to manage and direct change in
urban and rural areas. The planners” objective is to help ensure improved
conditions whether they are working in growing or declining urban areas.
Planners may specialize in a substantive area, such as housing, transportation,
or recreation, but generally they are removed from operating responsibilities
for specific program.
Planning education
must prepare students to work in a changing environment. Planning may be
considered a profession that emphasizes problem analysis and evaluation, and the
careful use of resources with the inherent objective of social
betterment.
The graduate program
in Environmental and Habitat Planning has its primary objective the education of
students for careers in the profession of environmental and habitat planning.
With the inception of this program in Saint Louis University, we can meet the
needs of those individuals within the region who are available on a part-time
basis. The program will also admit students from a wide range of educational and
occupational backgrounds. The majority of students in the program will be served
at a time when they have career and personal obligations that prevent them from
taking up the program full time in Metro Manila.
Moreover, Saint
Louis University strongly conforms with CHED Memo Order No. 36 Series of 1998
regarding policies and standards on graduate education specifically section 1
thereof read as follows:
Section 1. Statement of Policies – Graduate education is
at the apex of the education system. As such, it shall showcase the best of
the academic and intellectual products and processes of the system.
Specifically:
Graduate education shall be so structured as
to enhance quality; efficiency and effectiveness in higher
education;
Graduate education shall be made more
relevant and more responsive to the development needs of the educational
system as well as to the regional and national development thrusts;
and
Graduate education shall take the lead role
in enhancing the quality of Philippine higher education towards global
competitiveness and world-class scholarship.
Thus, Saint
Louis University merits the offering of an additional post graduate program,
Master of Arts in Environmental and Habitat Planning.