Master of Urban & Regional Planning
Admission Requirements | Core Units of Study | Option Units & Electives | Professional Development Courses | Educational aims and learning competencies | Career Profiles | The Planning Research Centre | Who employs planners? | Master of Transport Management/Urban & Regional Planning | What Goes On?
Urban & Regional Planning
The Urban & 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 these streams; Urban Design, Housing Studies or Heritage Conservation.
Program Coordinator: Martin Payne
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.
Admission Requirements
Masters and 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.
Core Units of Study
Total credit points required
Graduate Certificate 24
Core 18, Options 0, Electives 6
Graduate Diploma 48
Core 24, Options 0, Electives 24
Master 72
Core 48, Options 0, Electives 24
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.
Foundations of Environmental Planning
PLAN 9063, 6 credit points, semester 1, classes: weekly
An introduction to basic planning concepts, the unit will outline the types of planning interventions and plans. It will also introduce the concepts of urban form and densities, urban growth and metropolitan structure, and the environmental considerations in urban planning.
History and Theory in Urban Planning
PLAN 9068, 6 credit points, semester 1, classes: weekly
This unit examines the evolution of urban planning in Australia and internationally. It also explores key concepts and theories relevant to contemporary planning practice. You will develop skills in analysing, communicating, and evaluating responses to the critical planning issues affecting our cities and regions today.
Urban Design & Development Control
PLAN 9069, 6 credit points, semester 1, classes: weekly
This unit teaches knowledge, concepts and skills relevant to preparing urban design proposals and related development control instruments, and to the implementation of urban development. It engenders capability in designing proposals and instruments in practical situations.
Planning Procedures
PLAN 9061, 6 credit points, semester 1 & 2, classes: intensive
This unit familiarises you with the legal and policy context for urban and regional planning in Australia, and develops core skills in preparing, interpreting, and implementing planning instruments. You will learn about social, economic, and environmental considerations in planning practice and development control, with a focus on the NSW planning system. Guest speakers include industry professionals from the public and private sector. Assessments are based on contemporary case studies and contribute to a portfolio of professional work.
Planning Dissertation 1 & 2
PLAN 9010 (1), PLAN 9011 (2), 24 credit points, semester 1 & 2
(For Masters of Urban & Regional Planning students only)
(Dissertations are 12 credit points each and must be taken together)
The dissertation will normally involve a critical review of published material in a specified subject area, but it may also be an experimental or theoretical investigation, a feasibility study, a case study, a computer program, or other work demonstrating the student’s analytical ability.
Planning Report
PLAN 9018, 12 credit points, semester 1 & 2
(For Masters of Urban & Regional Planning students only)
A 10,000 word (maximum) report on a topic approved by the program coordinator and supervised by staff teaching the related elective unit. The objective is to provide an opportunity for you to study a topic of interest and develop skills in formulating a proposal, by undertaking a planning study and preparing a concise and coherent document.
Planning Law
PLAN 9062, 6 credit points, semester 2, classes: weekly
Components covered are: an understanding of the effect of state intervention on property rights and property relationships; practical understanding of the application of planning and heritage law procedures for planning practice; competence in the use of evidence in planning arguments.
Land Use and Infrastructure Planning
PLAN 9064, 6 credit points, semester 2, classes: weekly
This unit follows on from Foundations of Environmental Planning. You will be required to apply concepts, terms and methods in responding to practical problems. The unit will give you skills in site analyses, in designing and preparing development proposals, in reviewing land use, infrastructure and transportation plans, and in preparing documents which present, explain and justify proposals.
Option Units & Electives
Elective units without specialisation
Conservation Methods & Practices
Urban Environment
PLAN 9065, 6 credit points, semester 1
Economic Tools & Community Development
PLAN 9045, 6 credit points, semester 2 intensive
Environmental Design & Planning
PLAN 9048, 6 credit points, semester 2 intensive
Metropolitan Planning
PLAN 9067, 6 credit points, semester 2 intensive
Development Project Planning & Design
Available in 2009
Option units with specialisation
Heritage Conservation stream - Master
Total 72 credit points
Core 48, Options 18, Electives 6
Housing Studies stream - Master
Total 72 credit points
Core 48, Options 12, Electives 12
Housing and Urban & Regional Development
ARCH 9057, 6 credit points, semester 1 intensive
Housing for Health
PLAN 9050, 6 credit points, semester 1 intensive
Graduate Studio - Design Guidelines
PLAN 9070, 12 credit points, semester 2
Urban Design stream - Master
Total 72 credit points
Core 48, Options 24, Electives 0
Conservation Methods & Practices
See Heritage Conservation
History & Theory of Conservation
See Heritage Conservation
Urban Design Studios A
See Urban Design
Urban Design – Morphology
See Urban Design
Urban Design – Ideas & Methods
See Urban Design
Electives
Project Management in Developing Countries
Students are encouraged to choose electives from any graduate program. Students must refer to the web for timetables.
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.
Just want to study one unit of study as professional development?
Educational aims and learning competencies
Teaching in the urban and regional planning program is directed towards a range of educational aims and learning outcomes. A fundamental aim is to teach planning as a scholarly and professional activity. Academic and vocational aims are entwined and mutually reinforcing, as indicated under the goals and objectives of the Faculty’s Strategic Plan 2000-2005.
Aims
The aims of the Urban and Regional Planning Program are:
- To provide students with opportunities to study a range of relevant subjects and prepare for a variety of careers in planning practice, research and related areas.
- To provide an educational program that engenders critical and reflective planning practice, and fosters competence in performing key planning tasks.
- To equip students so they can respond flexibly to a wide range of situations and adapt to changing contexts.
- To inform students about urban planning systems in Australia and other countries, and related procedures involved in urban development and managing the environment.
- To enable students to meet the challenges of working in a multicultural and pluralistic society.
- To instill ethical professional behaviour and probity.
- To promote an ethical approach towards planning and managing the environment, while striving for social justice.
- To promote the objectives of environmentally sustainable urban and regional development.
- To promote competent and innovative investigations of and responses to planning issues, policies and outcomes.
Learning Outcomes
Learning outcomes cover the key competencies that students will have achieved on completion of the Urban and Regional Planning Program. Graduates will be able to demonstrate the following:
- A critical approach to the definition of planning issues and ability to discern how they are framed and addressed.
- Skills using alternative modes of analysis and innovative research methods.
- Competence in independent, self-directed learning.
- Skills enabling learning from practical experience and application of ideas drawn from past practice to new situations.
- A coherent understanding of planning as a professional activity operating within a complex context. In particular, students will achieve a knowledge of the following elements:
- Roles and basic structures of government,
- Planning procedures and legal requirements,
- Types of planning and policy instruments,
- Roles of private and public agencies,
- Management of change in the built environment,
- Human activities and systems operating within the built environment.
- Knowledge of the scope of environmental planning in both the natural and built environments.
- Skills in preparing basic planning discourses, including:
- Planning proposals and instruments,
- Planning studies, including impact, community, and economic,
- Development applications and approvals.
- Competence with using key forms of information, methods and reasoning that are basic to planning practice.
- Developing skills with working in groups, especially with listening, negotiating, and organising team work.
- Developing skills in interpreting and understanding of planning issues and their contexts, and in making sound, appropriate responses.
- Knowledge of key concepts in planning literature (history, theory, methods and law) and ability to draw upon this knowledge in responding to specific planning issues.
- Developing a high level of competence in computer applications in planning, including internet and web based resources. Mandatory units and specialisations.
Career Profiles
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 at the University of Sydney? 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.
Garry Glazebrook
What do you do? I run my own business giving people advice on planning matters, especially transport issues. My particular speciality is personal public transport.
How did you get there? I worked in various State Government Departments, ran my own business and then moved out into the private sector as a consultant at Booz Allen and Hamilton.
What are your plans for the future? I have started a PhD at Sydney University. I have a lot of research questions that I want to explore that I couldn't pursue in the workplace. I am finding it very stimulating.
What is one thing that sticks in your mind about your masters degree in planning?
The variety of students, in terms of their cultural backgrounds and their disciplinary training. It provided a very stimulating learning environment.Urban and Regional Planning has been taught at the University of Sydney for 50 years. Its graduates hold senior planning positions in Australia and elsewhere. The network of professional and personal contacts you make during your studies at the University of Sydney will help you for the rest of your career.
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.
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.
The PRC in the news.
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.
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.
For details of the Master of Transport Management in the Faculty of Economics and Business please see: www.econ.usyd.edu.au
What goes on?
Thursday Night Lectures
General Events
Designers Blog
NSW RAIA Tuesday Night Talks
The NSW chapter of the RAIA runs an ongoing programme of weekly talks, taking place on Tuesday evenings. These Tuesday Night Talks, or TNT, are intended as a valuable forum for members to raise, discuss and explore important developments, issues and ideas relating to architecture and urban design, as well as being a way for members and the profession generally, to engage with the public, to promote architecture more generally.