In June 1968, the Institute of Planning, now the Institute of Environmental Planning of the University of the Philippines, inaugurated its one-year masteral program in Environmental Planning. Its first enrollees were two civil engineers who later on were joined by 19 others; all of them received their diplomas in April 1969. Since then, 86 other students have graduated from the program, making a total of 107 graduates.
In January 1975, with the shift from the one-year Master in Environmental Planning program to a two-year graduate course in Urban and Regional Planning almost certain, the institute, being the only academic institution offering a degree in planning in the whole country, decided it was opportune to take a survey of the graduates it has had so far. The objective was to find out where the graduates were presently employed (geographically and sectorally, i.e., with the government or with the private sector) and to determine whether they were making use of their graduate training in planning in their jobs. More importantly, it looked into the actual contribution they were making in this particular field.
The survey which was the first of its kind undertaken by the Institute in the seven years of its program sought information on the nature of the tasks and functions performed by the graduates in their respective jobs and reo quested some feedback on how useful and relevant their degree is to the work they are presently engaged in. Related to this, the graduates were requested to offer some suggestions on how the graduate program could be made more relevant to the work that planners are undertaking to make their contribution to national development efforts more substantial and meaningful.