On January 24th, twenty-eight Master of Public Policy and Master of Global Affairs students at the Munk School participated in the 2025 Urban Policy Lab Case Competition. This year’s competition focused on decarbonizing Toronto’s existing building stock. Students were asked to develop a strategy that the City of Toronto could implement as part of their existing building strategy in the 2025-2030 TransformTO Action Plan. All teams presented a unique and thoughtful set of policy proposals to this multifaceted problem.

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Munk in the City is an ongoing experiential learning initiative organized by the Urban Policy Lab that brings Munk School students out of the classroom and into the community to see first-hand the challenges faced by residents across Toronto, and consider the urban policy solutions that can address these issues.

On September 2nd, 2024, the Urban Policy Lab arranged a walking tour for MPP students and alumni exploring the connections between public policy, community history, immigration, and urban dynamics in Kensington Market. The walk took place on a drizzly afternoon, providing participants with an intimate look at the Market’s vibrant history amidst Toronto’s urban growth. The tour was led by Alexander Carter, one of the Lab’s graduate fellows, who emphasized the critical role of immigration in shaping Kensington’s cultural and physical landscape, informing current urban policy considerations.

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On February 3, more than 30 Master of Public Policy and Master of Global Affairs students at the Munk School participated in the 2023 Urban Policy Lab Case Competition. This year’s competition focused on food insecurity in Toronto. Students were asked to develop a strategy that the City of Toronto could implement to increase access to affordable, nutritious, and culturally appropriate food in underserved communities.

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Munk in the City is an experiential learning initiative organized by the Urban Policy Lab, and supported by the University of Toronto’s School of Cities, that asks students to step out of the classroom and into the community to grapple with urban policy issues first-hand. In the weeks leading up to the 2022 Toronto municipal election, teams of students from both the Master of Public Policy and Master of Global Affairs programs ventured out to all corners of the city to explore and report on key issues and concerns. To see all student submissions, visit the project’s Padlet page. In this blog post, Graduate Fellow Luca Dannetta picks out a few of his favourite submissions.

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On January 21, twenty-two Master of Public Policy and Master of Global Affairs students at the Munk School participated in the 2022 Urban Policy Lab Case Competition. This year’s competition focused on the economic integration of newcomers to Toronto. Students were asked to develop a strategy that the City of Toronto could implement based on the priorities introduced in the newly published 2022-2026 Toronto Newcomer Strategy. 

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More than 40 Munk School students participated in the 2021 edition of the Urban Policy Case Competition, held on January 22nd. This year’s competition focused on economic development on main streets.

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The UPL Case Competition is an annual case competition organized by and for graduate students. It challenges MPP and MGA students to analyze and solve a pressing urban policy issue by working in teams and presenting their solution to a distinguished panel of judges. The topic for this year’s case competition is community economic development on a street level. The case competition will be on January 22nd from 12-5pm.

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On January 24, more than 35 students participated in the 2020 edition of the Urban Policy Lab Case Competition, organized by UPL Graduate Fellow Josh Cho. Eight teams of students were tasked with developing an implementation strategy to advance transit-oriented development in Toronto that also addresses challenges with affordability, gentrification and buy-in from developers and local communities. Continue reading »

On January 10th, the Urban Policy Lab hosted its second annual Career and Skills Development Day, a jam-packed schedule of interactive panels and small-group workshops to help MPP students gain specialized skills and knowledge relevant for a career in urban policy in multiple sectors and levels of government. UPL communications coordinators Kelly Husack and Kimberley Chan sat in on several sessions — a portion of over 11 hours of concurrent programming — and shared what they learned.

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On Saturday, November 30, the Urban Policy Lab hosted the inaugural Toronto Black Policy Conference, in partnership with the City of Toronto’s Confronting Anti-Black Racism Unit. The first-of-its-kind event was organized by Munk School alumni Anna-Kay Russell, Sharnelle Morgan, and Eunice Kays, founders of the Toronto Black Policy Network. Continue reading »

On October 11th, the Urban Policy Lab launched its interactive speaker series ‘Get Lunched!’ with a lesson on service design from Taylor Cook and Andrew Do from the City of Austin. UPL graduate fellow Jolene Funk, who organized and attended the event, shares what she learned from our guests. 

On October 11th, Taylor Cook and Andrew Do from the City of Austin came to the University of Toronto and led an interactive workshop on Service Design for Municipalities. The event was attended by Master of Public Policy Students and MPP alumni working in provincial and municipal governments.

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Our Munk in the City initiative, now in its second year, invites students from the Munk School’s MPP and MGA programs to step out of the classroom and into the community, to explore and report on key election issues in each of Toronto’s 25 federal ridings.

This year’s edition kicked off with a civic engagement workshop led by Zahra Ebrahim (@zahraeb), an award-winning city builder and chair of Jane’s Walk, to prepare and inspire students to chronicle the city around them.

Follow our students’ adventures by looking out for the #munkinthecity hashtag across social media. A compilation of student submissions will be posted to the UPL website later this fall.

In the weeks leading up to the federal election, 25 pairs of students from both the Master of Public Policy and Master of Global Affairs programs will step out of the classroom and into the community, venturing to all corners of the city to explore and report on key issues and concerns in each of Toronto’s 25 ridings.

For more information and to register, visit our events page.

On August 12, the Urban Policy Lab arranged a walking tour for MPP students and alumni exploring the connections between public policy and Indigenous knowledge and history. UPL graduate fellow Jolene Funk organized the walk and shares her reflections on the experience.

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