Graduate Program for International Students in Urban and Environmental Studies (UBE-UPN/ENV)

Programme overview

A two-year, fully English-taught Master's programme run by the Department of Urban Engineering of the Graduate School of Engineering at the University of Tokyo's Hongo campus, admitted through the Graduate School of Engineering's International Admission Programs. The department was established in 1962 and its graduate programmes started in 1966; it is built around two courses that the international programme also uses as its admission courses — the Urban Planning Course and the Environmental Engineering Course (called the Urban Environmental Engineering Course on the department's own pages). Teaching combines English-taught lectures with heavy emphasis on studio work, fieldwork and laboratory research: urban planning students take intensive design studios covering urban data collection, analysis, projection of urban structures and physical model building, while environmental engineering students take studio work such as the design of water and wastewater treatment plants together with laboratory research in water quality analysis, environmental pollution field survey, hydrodynamics and water treatment. Admission is by a two-stage selection — a first screening on the documents submitted through the T-cens online system, then an online interview with faculty — with no requirement to travel to Japan for an entrance examination and no requirement to secure a supervisor before applying. Around 170 graduate students are enrolled in the department, including about 50 international students.

The programme sits inside the Department of Urban Engineering of the Graduate School of Engineering, on the Hongo campus. The department is "composed of an urban planning course and an urban environmental engineering course", and the international programme uses those same two courses as its admission courses: the Graduate School of Engineering booklet lists "Environmental Engineering Course" and "Urban Planning Course" under the Graduate Program for International Students in Urban and Environmental Studies. Applicants choose one course in the T-cens Course Directory when they apply, and "Applicants may apply to only one course across the April 2027 and October 2027 entries in the International Admission Programs at the Graduate School of Engineering". Both courses share a single set of application guidelines, one application period, one set of documents and one selection process; the guidelines publish no difference in eligibility, deadlines or required documents between them. Once admitted, students are attached to a research unit (laboratory): after the documents are evaluated, "we will allocate you to a field of study and faculty member most suited to your research interests". Teaching in both courses places "a strong emphasis on the studio and/or laboratory work". The department also runs a doctoral course within the same programme, which is out of scope for this record.

Important facts