Urban & Regional Planning

What is this course about?

The Urban and Regional Planning program teaches strong foundations in urban and regional planning, with the opportunity for students to develop more specialised knowledge in emergent areas, such as environmental design, planning for better structured cities, and sustainable management.

Urban and regional planners are increasingly involved in formulating policies, guiding urban and environmental initiatives, and in managing the social, environmental and economic impacts of development. The program places considerable emphasis on students learning appropriate communication, reasoning and analytical skills for making valuable contributions to the wider emergent professional roles. There is also an opportunity to specialise, by selecting from the range of options offered in the Housing Studies or Heritage Conservation streams.

Display educational aims and learning competencies? ...

Who should take this course?
Professionals wishing to develop their skills in urban and regional planning
would be well suited to this course.

Professional membership
The program is accredited by the Planning Institute of Australia. Masters graduates are eligible, subject to professional experience requirements, for corporate membership of PIA.

Program Director: Dr Paul Jones

Admission Requirements

Masters applicants should hold a bachelors degree with a credit average. Graduate Diploma applicants should hold a bachelors degree. Graduate Certificate applicants should hold a bachelors degree or possess experience which is considered to demonstrate the knowledge and aptitude required to undertake the course.

Applications for Postgraduate studies can now be completed easily online.

Please visit the Admissions page for more information on how to get started.

Course structure

Total credit points required

All Masters students must complete a Report or Dissertation. Candidates of sufficient merit, who complete the Dissertation, will qualify for the award of the degree with Honours. Students commencing in July semester should note that some units have prerequisite units offered in March semester. This may affect enrolment choice. Students should consult the student admissions coordinator () to ensure their length of candidature will not be affected.

Career Profile

Gabrielle Phillip
What do you do?
I am now working for the Housing Policy and Strategy Directorate.

How did you get there?
After I graduated with my Masters in Planning from the University of Sydney I worked for a Local Council as a Housing Officer and as a more traditional planner. As a Housing officer I worked at preserving low income housing stock and helping the council work with developers and the State Government to create new low income housing. As a planner, I also assessed the impact of proposed development applications. Later I moved to the Department of Housing where I managed a number of housing programs including the crisis accommodation program and the community housing program. This involved a range of duties including setting budgets, providing advice to people running the programs and providing policy advice to senior staff about how these programs could be changed. Somehow I also managed to fit in finishing a Ph.D!

What is the one thing that sticks in your mind about your time studying planning?
The staff are very well qualified and professional in their approach to study and supervision. In my area of specialisation (housing), the staff are well known both locally and internationally.

Stephanie Barket, BScArch/MURP
After she graduated as an architect, Stephanie Barker worked in inner city redevelopment for a couple of years. But before too long, she decided that planning was more her style, so she returned to study for a Master of Urban and Regional Planning.

"It was a shift from client-based work to having communities as your client." said Ms Barker, who is now a senior planner with Planning NSW. "I did my master's thesis about the team that I'm now the senior planner for, basically looking at how new urban areas get created. I worked for a couple of years for Liverpool Council, which had a lot of that work going on. I'm now in a more strategic area, working on the new suburbs that cross all of Sydney.

Ms Barker is part of a new wave, trying to bring a more "sustainable approach" to urban development. "Rather that doing things as we have been with car-dependant urban sprawl, [we are] actually building new communities that have high amenity, public transport and local employment." she said.

Who employs planners?
Planners are usually employed in four areas:

• Government: Planners are involved in all levels of Government from local councils to State and Federal Governments. Local Government is perhaps the biggest employer, with planners being responsible for planning and assessing development within their council areas.
• Private consultants: Consultants are most often employed by developers, local residents or on contract to local councils or other government bodies in Australia and overseas.
• Private Companies: An increasing number of large companies employ their own planners on staff to handle development projects for that company.
• A wide variety of other professions, including engineering, architecture, education, and environmental and recreation management also employ planners.

The Planning Research Centre

The Planning Research Centre's main purpose is to further fundamental research into physical planning and development. It also sponsors seminars in specialised fields, undertakes research and consultancy projects, runs professional development courses, and promotes the publication of research material. It has an active membership comprised of members of government and industry.

Master of Transport Management / Urban & Regional Planning

The Master of Transport Management/ Master of Urban and Regional Planning award course is a path-breaking initiative in cross-disciplinary postgraduate education between the Faculties of Economics and Business and Architecture, Design & Planning. Integrating specialised study in urban and regional planning and transport management with carefully tailored study in key areas of urban and transport planning, the program offers urban and regional planners a specially crafted and cohesive program of study that draws together knowledge from the fields of land use and transport planning, urban design, transport policy, environmental management, transport economics. Although built around a core of essential knowledge, the program also allows students scope to undertake advanced study in one of more areas of urban, regional and transport planning. Students will be prepared for careers in local government traffic and planning as well as regional and national planning organisations as well as private consultants engaged in transportation and traffic management.

Find out more;
Master of Transport Management/Urban and Regional Planning
Master of Transport Management and Master of Urban and Regional Planning

How to apply

Ready to apply for the course?
Visit the Admissions page for more information on how to apply for this course.

Just want to study one unit of study as professional development?
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) courses are a range of short courses offered to professionals who are looking to update their knowledge, enhance career pathways or for personal interest. Visit the CPD page for more information on Professional Development courses.

Enquiries

Enquiries about the Master Urban & Regional Planning can be made via email or telephone to:
Anne-Marie Leo, , +61 2 9351 2686.

For enquiries relating to current application progress, class timetables, credit transfers and enrolment, please contact the Student Administration Centre for further information.

Ph: +61 2 9351 3248.