The College of Public and Community Service is an innovative, competency-based college with a dynamic faculty, motivated students, and distinguished alumni such as Boston mayor Tom Menino.

The College of Public and Community Service (CPCS) is one of the colleges that comprise the University of Massachusetts at Boston campus, strategically located next to the JFK Library and the state archives near the heart of one of North America's best cities.

The College was founded in 1972 to extend the land grant mission of the university by focusing on public and community service in urban areas and by providing an education in the liberal arts and social sciences with training for professional careers. CPCS is distinguished by its competency-based system of education, the innovative learning options it provides, and by its commitment to promoting full participation in society through educational programs and professional practice.

CPCS is a college for people who are seeking to make a difference in their own lives and in the lives of others. It provides an empowering and effective education to people who are committed to working for social justice, and who want to promote positive development in their communities.

Founded in 1972-73, CPCS represented a new model for undergraduate professional education built on the idea of what was then referred to as a "problem oriented unit". The College was to disclaim the traditional separation between professional education and liberal learning. It would build links between understanding and effective action. Its programs were to include opportunities for field work and work experience. The College also would develop specific arrangements with poverty organizations and government agencies for instructional and recruitment purposes. The College was also to be especially imaginative about admissions criteria. Its mission [would] require that it develop sophisticated mechanisms for identifying talent in individuals who may not meet conventional standards. It [would] have to develop means of taking people at various ages and levels of developed competence and offering degree programs suitable to their needs. Credit was to be attainable by certification of demonstrated competence in an area rather than solely by the traditional process of spending prescribed time in course work.

More than thirty years later, CPCS remains true to the vision that led to its creation:

It is a predominantly undergraduate college offering students an interdisciplinary program combining liberal arts and professional education. The College's curriculum and practice are centered on the study of urban reality and positive social change. Its educational program is focused on helping students to develop deeper understanding about the type and nature of issues affecting urban life and supporting them in becoming effective professionals whose main focus is the enhancement of these communities.

The College offers four basic methods of evaluation for competencies at the College: classroom instruction, project-based learning, evaluation of prior learning and directed study. Based on assessment of their skills and needs, students are able to tailor a learning plan drawing on these different modes of learning and evaluation to move through the curriculum.

Believing that both community and individual empowerment are enhanced the more community and college are interwoven, a central focus of the College's practice is centered on developing recruitment initiatives, educational programs, and research that bring the College and the community together to work on the shared goal of community development.

The competency system offers students different options for developing and demonstrating competence in the requisite skills and knowledge they need to complete their degrees and prepare them for effective practice in a wide range of professional areas. The College recognizes that there are many ways to learn and to develop and demonstrate competence, and it is committed to providing a range of innovative learning and demonstration options inside and outside the classroom. Under the competency system, students have more control in designing an educational plan that works for them (given their experience, time, and learning styles) within the curricular framework. As part of their work at the College, students assess their accomplishments and their learning needs to determine the support or leeway they need to get the education they want. In its practice and in the educational opportunities it provides, CPCS endeavors to function as an inclusive, democratic and participatory learning community that promotes diversity, equality and social justice.