At the convergence of the fields of social work, urban planning, and policymaking, the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs identifies and develops emerging areas of research and teaching and cultivates leaders and change agents who advance solutions to society's most pressing problems.

Founded in 1994, UCLA Luskin incorporates best practices in scholarship, research and teaching in the fields of social work, urban and regional planning, and policymaking. The unique intersection of these disciplines within one School allows for academic cross-collaboration and a graduate education that values perspectives at the macro- and micro- organizational levels. Graduates of the master’s degree and doctoral programs are well prepared to take leadership roles and effect change as practitioners, researchers, and policymakers in the public, private, and non-governmental sectors.

Faculty of the Luskin School of Public Affairs are actively engaged in research that address pressing national and regional issues including immigration, drug policy, prison reform, health care financing, transportation and the environment, national security, economic development, and an aging U.S. and world population. The School is named after Meyer and Renee Luskin—UCLA alumni, Angelenos, and philanthropists—who generously gave a $100 million gift to UCLA, half of which funded endowments in the School of Public Affairs. On March 18, 2011, the School was officially named the UCLA Meyer and Renee Luskin School of Public Affairs.

Quick Facts

Leadership: Franklin D. Gilliam, Jr.

Former associate vice chancellor of community partnerships; current professor of political science and of public policy, became the Dean of the UCLA School of Public Affairs in 2008.

Degrees:

• Master's degrees in Social Welfare, Urban and Regional Planning, and Public Policy.
• Doctoral programs in Social Welfare and Urban Planning.
• Undergraduate minors in Public Affairs and Urban and Regional Planning.

Student body: 521 students

• 186 Urban Planning students (36 Ph.D.)
• 247 Social Welfare students (46 Ph.D.)
• 88 Public Policy students

Alumni: 6,935

• 265 Master of Public Administration degree holders
• 143 Doctoral degree holders
• 468 Master of Public Policy degree holders
• 2,156 Master's degree holders from Urban Planning
• 3,903 Master of Social Welfare degree holders

See a selection of magazines and other publications on the school's Issuu page.