All Things Urban

The Urban95 Academy is a fully-funded (free to participants) executive education programme for municipal leaders worldwide who want to learn and develop strategies to make cities better for babies, toddlers and their caregivers. The Academy is a joint collaboration between the **Van Leer Foundation** and the **London School of Economics and Political Science**. The course is delivered over 7 weeks online and participants join a growing global network of practitioners working to improve the lives of children in their cities. Some cities will have the opportunity to study in-person in London and access further technical support. The Urban95 Academy is open to all Mayors, municipal leaders, city planners, designers and urban professionals working in local government. The online course consists of two components, 15 online modules and 7 weekly live Zoom sessions. - Two to three modules will be released each week through the dedicated online learning platform Learn Worlds. These sessions will have a mix of readings, videos, and assignments to complete at a time that is convenient to you. The course requires a time commitment of about 4 hours per week. - In addition, there will be 7 live Zoom sessions each week with LSE faculty, guest speakers and fellow cohort participants. At least one member of every team is required to attend the live Zoom session each week but all team members are welcome to join the live Zoom sessions. At the end of the seven-week online course, participants are asked to submit an action strategy assignment addressing a local challenge in their city. Based on this assignment and overall participation and engagement in the course, 10 cities are invited to come to an all-expenses paid Residence Week at the LSE in London. Find out more [here](https://urban95academy.org/about-us/the-urban95-academy/) . The Residence Week consists of intensive workshops, networking opportunities, London site visits, public lectures, and other events. Upon completing the programme, cities may also be eligible to receive additional technical support from Urban95 Academy partners and are invited to join the Urban95 global network of city practitioners and officials. Applications for Cohort 9 which will take place in May - June 2025 are now being accepted. The deadline to apply is Wednesday, 23 April 2025. **Please specify in your application that you found this opportunity through All Things Urban** 📢 **Application Webinar Alert!** Curious to learn more? Join the free info session on Tuesday, April 1, 2025, at 2 PM BST to get insights into the program and the application process. 📌 Register [here](https://lse.zoom.us/meeting/register/w4VSG0uXRFSUxYA_A4BiVw).

Cities are invited to apply with a team of three municipal leaders. One team member must have at least 10 years of experience in a relevant field and **you need to provide an official letter of support from your mayor or city executive**.

Participants receive a certificate of completion from the LSE after successfully completing the course. .

The Urban95 Academy launched in January 2022 and has delivered the programme to 283 cities including 116 Mayors & Deputy Mayors from 75 countries across eight cohorts. Taking part in the Urban95 Academy connects you to a growing network of engaged and motivated urban practitioners around the world, who are working to improve the lives of young children and caregivers in their cities. [Find out more on our website](https://urban95academy.org/). [The London School of Economics and Political Science](https://www.lse.ac.uk/) is a social science university based in central London with a global reach. Ranked first in Europe and second in the world for social sciences and management in the QS subject rankings 2021. Since 1895 the LSE has been pioneering social science research, challenging existing ways of thinking, and seeking to understand the causes of things in order to transform them. [LSE Cities](https://www.lse.ac.uk/cities) is an international centre that investigates the complexities of the contemporary city. It carries out research, graduate and executive education, outreach and advisory activities in London and abroad. Extending LSE’s century-old commitment to the understanding of urban society, LSE Cities investigates how complex urban systems are responding to the pressures of growth, change and globalisation with new infrastructures of design and governance that both complement and threaten social equity and environmental sustainability. [The Van Leer Foundation](https://vanleerfoundation.org/) is an independent Dutch organisation working globally to foster inclusive societies where all children and communities can flourish. The Foundation brings together people with different perspectives and supports them to achieve large-scale impact. Their support involves a unique combination of funding, networks, executive education, technical assistance and knowledge.