MASTER OF ARTS IN ENVIRONMENTAL

AND HABITAT PLANNING (M.A.E.H.P.)

RATIONALE

     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:

1. Graduate education shall be so structured as to enhance quality; efficiency and effectiveness in higher education;
2. 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
3. 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.