Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
Serving Communities,
Shaping the World
The mission of the Bloustein School at Rutgers University–New Brunswick is to create just, socially inclusive, environmentally sustainable and healthy local, national and global communities.
Graduate U.S. urban planning program
Planetizen, 2023
Public health undergraduate program in New Jersey
College Factual, 2025
Master of Health Administration, nationwide
U.S. News & World Report, 2026
Employed or pursuing higher education after graduation
2025 data
Meshing Creativity and Community with Placemaking and Equity
“Even though my journey into urban planning didn’t start at the age of five…I discovered that my life experiences have always drawn me towards activism, placemaking, and community-building. My strong foundation in writing and critical thinking, paired with my interest in community engagement and social justice, launched my planning and public policy career at Rutgers.”
Abigail Alvarez, Master of City and Regional Planning
Education, Research, and Service
The Bloustein School is committed to academic excellence and strives to be an international leader in research, teaching, service, practice, creative activities, and engagement as we address existing and emerging challenges in our region and in a rapidly changing world. Our tight-knit and diverse community of faculty, staff, and students seek to inspire new thinking and strategies to address the grand challenges facing our economy and society.
Health Administration: Leadership and Public Service
While the Bloustein School's founding is recorded as 1992, its undergraduate roots stretch back to the 1960s with the Urban Studies and Community Development major. The passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 sparked a resurgence of interest in population health — and the school responded. The health administration major launched in fall 2015, and demand was immediate.
The Master of Health Administration followed in 2017, enrolling 80 students in its first cohort. Just five years later, the MHA earned accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education (CAHME), and U.S. News & World Report has since ranked it among the top 30 health administration programs nationally.
Research Spotlight: What Do People Think of E-bikes?
E-bikes are everywhere and so are the opinions about them. New Bloustein School research by Dr. Hannah Younes and Ph.D. candidate Yingning Xie surveyed nearly 1,000 New Jersey residents and found something surprising: even people who have never ridden an e-bike largely see them as a net positive for their communities. But as popularity grows faster than infrastructure, the policy questions are getting complicated.
Service to Service — Military and Veterans Support
The Bloustein School is proud to participate in Service to Service, a national initiative led by the Volcker Alliance and We the Veterans and Military Families. Launched in 2024, the program connects veterans and military families with graduate public service education and a clear pathway into careers in public leadership at the state and local level.
Admitted students who enroll in a Bloustein master's program through Service to Service are eligible for scholarship funding, and graduates benefit from the school's deep partnerships with government agencies to land roles where they're needed most.
Discover the Bloustein School
The Bloustein School prepares students to be the planning, policy, and health leaders of tomorrow by encouraging open discussion, applying quantitative methods for analysis, studying historical trends, and thoroughly considering economic and demographic trends and political institutions and processes.
