U of A establishes new Cities Institute and new master’s program

On June 5, the University of Alberta announced it would be establishing the Cities Institute. As part of the Alberta School of Business, the institute aims to shape the future of cities, including Edmonton, through interdisciplinary collaboration.

The U of A established the Cities Institute with the help of a $5 million gift from the Gupta family, who also founded the Rohit Group real estate company.

Murtaza Haider will serve as the inaugural Radhe Krishna Gupta Executive Chair in Cities and Communities and will lead the Cities Institute. Haider was a professor of data science and real estate at Toronto Metropolitan University. 

Haider said he has over 30 years of studying cities, working with industry partners, and being an engineer who researches real estate markets. 

The Gateway asked Haider why Edmonton and the U of A is the best place for the Cities Institute. He said that Edmonton still has the potential to grow. Other cities, like Montreal and London, have already “reached their potential,” according to Haider. 

“Edmonton today is what Montreal was 70 years ago,” he said. “This is the time that Alberta takes off, this is the time that Edmonton takes off because it has a space, it has the people, it has the ambition, and it has the opportunities to do that.”

On why the U of A is the place for the institute, he said that “there’s no better place to work with the best talent, to inspire and be inspired by your colleagues.”

He specifically pointed to the quality of graduate and undergraduate students at the U of A. 

“It will open even more doors for students to dive deeper into city building,” finance and accounting student says

The U of A will also introduce a Master of Real Estate Development Plus (MRED+) in 2026. Currently the U of A has a certificate in real estate and a Master of Business Administration in Real Estate Stream.

Grace Metcalfe, a finance and accounting student at the U of A, spoke at the announcement. She said she recently completed the real estate certificate program.

“I’ve entered through this program curious about real estate and left with a new passion for the industry and a clear path for my career,” Metcalfe said.

She said she gained knowledge in city planning, plan development, commercial real estate, as well as technical skills like financial modelling. Metcalfe also said she connected with industry professionals through networking events and travelled to Vancouver in March to compete in the Western Canada Real Estate Challenge. 

“Experiences like these help me to understand just how complex and impactful city building really is and how many moving parts come together to shape the places we live in,” she said. 

Metcalfe said she’s excited about how the MRED+ will build on her experience.

“It will open even more doors for students to dive deeper into city building, development, and leadership, all necessary skills to keep this great city growing and thriving.”

“The real estate field is desperate for talent,” Haider says

Haider told The Gateway that this new master’s program will focus on city building while looking at a combination of factors such as planning, zoning, and finance. 

“The real estate field is desperate for talent and there are not many master’s programs that are focused on real development across Canada, especially Alberta,” Haider said.

He said the program will create specialized individuals coming from industry, government, and other places to study real estate development.

Haider added that his ambition is to take the program global to expand the impact of the institute and program beyond just Edmonton and Alberta. 

“We want to make this new master’s program attractive to city builders all across the world so that when we deliver it it’s not locally delivered, it’s locally engineered and delivered globally.”