Master of Urban and Regional Planning

What you'll learn

Our Master of Urban and Regional Planning equips you with the technical and professional expertise to carve out your career. You’ll increase your understanding to an advanced level.  

These are your first-year courses: 

• Theory and practice in urban and regional planning 
• Planning governance, stakeholders, politics and policy 
• Integrated transport and infrastructure planning 
• Urban design for health and sustainability 
• Development economics 
• Environmental planning, climate change and sustainability. 

There are far-reaching consequences to designing and developing the environments we humans occupy. It’s a practice that has deep roots in the past. You’ll investigate planning’s millennia-long history to appreciate the impact of the past on the future. You’ll explore government policies and regulations to see how the law works to guide the impacts of today’s planners on tomorrow’s world. 

You'll choose from available elective topics which could include urban regeneration or a study tour. 

In your second year, you’ll build your understanding ever further in the following high-level courses: 

• Planning law 
• Development assessment 
• Social planning and community issues 
• Research methods in planning 
• Urban planning professional experience 
• Urban design and master planning studio 
• Research project in planning. 

Tighten your grasp on the legal principles that inform the planning industry. Survey complex legislature, including zoning and property rights. Then look deeper into community concerns, assessing the implications that planning can have for equity and social cohesion. You’ll look into the intended and unintended consequences of land use and the policies that govern it.  

You’ll refine your own research skills. This not only helps you complete your qualification, it also provides a good foundation for further work in research. Even while working as a professional, there’s no reason you can’t continue contributing to an international body of knowledge. 

In your second year, you’ll carry out a research project. You’ll form a research question, perform a literature review, collect or analyse existing data and make conclusions. You will also be provided with work experience at either a private sector planning consultancy, state government regulatory agency or a local council, where you will put your skills into practice and develop your professional network.   

With mentored work experience, you’ll gain the freedom, the knowledge and the confidence to find your place in the field. You’ll graduate from your Master of Urban and Regional Planning program with the ability to exercise a critical perspective on the industry’s history, practice, politics and research.