Urban Planning and Design

Complex urban problems require planning professionals who are versatile and multifaceted:

they need to be persuasive collaborators, articulate mediators and strategic organisers.Our Master of Urban Planning and Design is accredited by the Planning Institute of Australia.

It gives students the technical capabilities and creative capacity to address the big challenges facing our cities.Whether you’re keen to upskill or change careers as a Monash Urban Planning and Design graduate you will be ready to work towards a sustainable and people-centered future.

The degree is centered on four project based learning themes: compact city, ecological city, sprawling city and inclusive city. You will integrate design skills and thinking with planning knowledge in real-world learning environments and engage in lectures, workshops, seminars and field visits.

In addition, you can tailor your studies to individual interests with elective units on topics that include transport, sustainable development, economics, indigenous perspectives or international development.

You can also undertake a thesis as a springboard for a PhD.

In summary, the degree comprises four project studio units, four complementary study units, two applied professional practice units and two electives.

PART A. Planning projects and study Units

Urban planning projects

Cumulative, project-based learning is attached to real-world settings and research projects that provide the framework/ structure for the development of the conceptual, creative, analytical, critical, ethical and communication skills required by planning professionals and appropriate to graduate study. Working in multidisciplinary groups on research projects, you’ll learn how to synthesise planning solutions within the constraints of a given project.

Projects work across a range of spatial settings, allowing a broad exploration of issues, and development of skills and knowledge. The delivery of the project integrates lectures from leading academics and practitioners, workshops and seminars, field visits and examinations of case studies of projects, plans and policies used in cities around the world. In each project, students develop skills around applied knowledge that considers how the physical, social, cultural, economic and governance issues are integrated. Ideas, concepts and outcomes of projects will be communicated through presentations, draft policies, plans and urban designs.

You’ll be assessed through regular critiques of your work and through the final outcomes of written and visual work at the end of the semester.

The results of each project will become part of a compendium that collects and builds knowledge and expertise in the course. This compendium will be, in effect, a living document that compiles all of the theoretical, historical, propositional and final reports of the course.

The project units include:

1. Planning project 1: The compact city
2. Planning project 2: The ecological city
3. Planning project 3: The sprawling city
4. Planning project 4: The inclusive city

Urban planning study units

Complementary study units deepen knowledge areas and introduce you to the methods and approaches of urban planning research that engage with the multidisciplinary socio-cultural, political, economic, historical, theoretical and governance dimensions relevant to planning and urbanism. These units are run as lectures and seminars and are delivered in each semester.

The study units incorporate literature and case study material that reflects on a wide range of approaches in Australia and internationally. This will ensure a relevance of material to students who come from or wish to work overseas.

The study units include:

1. Planning Study 1: Regulating the city
2. Planning Study 2: Economics and the city
3. Planning Study 3: Critical debates histories and theories of urban planning
4. Planning Study 4: Democratic community engagement

Part B. Applied professional practices units

In these studies you’ll focus on the generic capabilities and specific competencies that contribute to the practice of a quality urban planning professional, and the development of their abilities to work at a high level and in an ethical way in multidisciplinary teams that address a range of complex issues in the city.

Issues covered include the development and constant refining of skills in research, project management, spatial analysis, data collection and management, policy writing, plan-making and urban design, architectural plan-reading, and presentation and communication skills. The units include:

1. Applied professional practice: Planning capabilities and competencies
2. Applied professional practice: Urban planning and design research methods

Part C. Electives

These studies provide complementary depth units that enable students to tailor studies to individual interests. You can select units from either planning-specific advanced planning studies depth units or other units offered by the University. Two open electives may be chosen from across the Monash University faculties, in which you’re eligible to enrol. In any given year a range of units relevant to urban planning (e.g. transport, architecture, sustainable development, economics, project management, Indigenous perspectives, professional writing) will be available.

If you’re interested in progressing to research training, an exegesis unit may be taken in place of the final elective unit. In this unit, you’ll conceptualise and present a final project work in the context of contemporary theory and practice.

Qualifications

An Australian undergraduate degree (or equivalent) with at least credit average (65%) or qualification/experience or substitute that the faculty considers to be equivalent.

English requirements

Applicants must also meet the English language requirements.

University entrance requirements

Minimum entrance requirements for admission to Monash University Australia.

Learning outcomes

These course outcomes are aligned with the Australian Qualifications Framework level 9 and Monash Graduate Attributes.

Upon successful completion of this course it is expected that you will be able to:

1.

understand, reflect critically upon, and proficiently apply the necessary skills to become a professional planner according to the requirements of the Planning Institute of Australia

2.

integrate relevant knowledge and skills to develop, appraise and evaluate planning solutions in complex urban contexts, sensitive to environmental, economic, governance, social and cultural considerations

3.

collaborate and communicate effectively in multi-disciplinary teams, demonstrating intercultural competence, team membership and leadership in diverse environments

4.

critically assess international planning discourses and practices, applying interdisciplinary research methods to contribute to advancing planning and urban design practice and knowledge

5.

apply critical judgment to situate research and urban planning practice in a wider context, to appropriately consider the impact on an international community.