Understanding the global transport sector

Like most global cities, Australia’s capital cities have a long way to go before they can claim that their transport systems are truly accessible and reliable.

With a projected population growth of 80% by 2050, Sydney is already dealing with problems in its transport systems, causing a surge in demand for workers with the skills to fix them.

Our Master of Transport draws on key skillsets from a variety of disciplines to help graduates address those problems within the transport sector – and find the solutions.

Designing the future transport of global cities requires skills from across multiple areas.

Proficiency in engineering, business, and planning and design is needed if we are to further the evolution of transport as reliable and accessible.

This is why our Master of Transport has been designed as a collaboration between the Faculty of Engineering, the School of Architecture, Design, and Planning, and the University of Sydney Business School.

This professional postgraduate degree also enables students to study units from all three faculties and schools. 

“Students will choose from a variety of electives in the field that will help them build specialisations,” says Professor David Levinson, a transport engineer within the Faculty of Engineering who oversees the Master of Transport.

This means everything from transport and policy systems analysis, to engineering, planning, and modelling, to urban design and planning, and data science and analytics.

These electives are designed to give students the interdisciplinary skills needed to work in the growing and increasingly global transport sector.

“This is the first interdisciplinary transport degree in Australia, and the only one with equal parts from the Faculty of Engineering, the School of Architecture, Design and Planning and the Business School,” says Professor Levinson.

“This means students studying our transport degree will get a full picture of what the transport field is like, and not limited or bound by disciplinary silos.”

The Master of Transport looks closely at the history of transportation, including the rapid transit system of the London Underground, the former extensive tramway network of Sydney, and the numbered highway system of the United States, in order to understand how our transport systems can most efficiently operate both independently, and as a network.

In examining the past, graduates will develop a critical understanding of the prevalence and identification of transport systems, as well as the core capabilities needed to analyse and design such systems.

“Many different kinds of jobs, including those in transport planning, engineering, and management, require partnerships between the public sector and private industry,” says Professor Levinson.

“Being conversant in multiple disciplines will help graduates in getting an initial job in this complex field, but also as their career progresses to larger and more complex projects that require understanding across fields.”

A great strength of the Master of Transport degree is its connection to the University of Sydney’s transport research community, which includes the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies and its exceptionally strong links with industry, and the ongoing transport engineering research being undertaken by the Faculty of Engineering.

Applications are now open for the Master of Transport – for more information on the course structure, costs and entry requirements, please visit the course website.