In 2016, on the initiative of Professor Ernest Aryeetey (then Vice Chancellor), the University established the CUMS under the College of Humanities with Professor George Owusu as its founding Director. The Centre was established to provide a comprehensive and multi-disciplinary environment for the conduct of innovative research, teaching, and public outreach activities on the management of the urban built environment. CUMS is dedicated to actively engaging with academics, policymakers and practitioners of the urban built environment on issues including urban policy, planning and governance; urban economy and informality; urban development, crime and security; urban environmental management and policy; urban housing and slum upgrading strategies; urban poverty and inequalities; urban infrastructure financing strategies; urban transport and urban health. 

CUMS offers MSc, MPhil, and PhD programmes in Urban Studies accredited by the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC). All three programmes are transdisciplinary, founded on the assumption that to understand complex urban development challenges better; students must be literate in the various urban-focused disciplines and engage with other stakeholders in the urban space. The programmes are both “academic” and “professional,” offering students liberal arts and social science approaches to understanding the operation of urban socio-economic processes and their implications. Suffice it to add that these programmes feed directly into the policy recommendation on promoting and strengthening research in urbanisation and urban development as contained in Ghana’s National Urban Policy and Action Plan, 2012. The policy acknowledged the paucity of research and data on Ghanaian cities and recommended the promotion and strengthening of research and training on cities and the urban sector in general.

Interfaculty members from the University’s several academic units with diverse backgrounds including geography, economics, African studies, sociology, education, environmental and development studies, among others are affiliated with the centre. These faculty members are dedicated to aiding the Centre’s teaching, policy development, research, and capacity-building efforts.