Urban Development (MPI) at Toronto Metropolitan University

Our course offers a balance of theory and practice — we focus on you being able to integrate your academic knowledge into the real world. You will gain the knowledge and skills that planners need to solve a wide range of important social and environmental issues. You will learn to think critically to analyse competing priorities, to solve complex problems, to strategise, and to communicate effectively as a planning professional with a wide range of audiences.

UNE’s Bachelor of Urban and Regional Planning includes hands-on, industry-based work experience. You will get a broad, thorough understanding of design and planning in urban and regional contexts, across a range of major areas: land use; social and economic issues; transport; professionalism and ethics; environmental and planning law.

The skills you will learn are valued and transferable across many professional contexts, in both the public and private sectors. With these skills you will be boosting your fitness for your future career, while also working towards a more liveable, more sustainable world and helping communities work and thrive.

Our Bachelor of Urban and Regional Planning is fully accredited with the Planning Institute of Australia.

Each year, more planners graduate from UNE than any other Australian university. We have been the leading innovator of flexible study for over 60 years because we are committed to helping busy adults: you can study from anywhere.

Our Bachelor of Urban and Regional Planning is structured to provide you with a wide breadth of knowledge and skills that balance theory with real-world contexts. You will get a broad, thorough understanding of design and planning in urban and regional contexts, across a range of major areas: land use; social and economic issues; transport; professionalism and ethics; and environmental and planning law.

You will also get to:

• Gain practical experience and work on planning projects, informed by on-the-job practice, as part of your assessment.
• Choose to study full time or part time, either on-campus in Armidale, or fully online with the flexibility to suit your lifestyle.
• Complete your course in four years (full-time) or up to ten years (part-time).

By choosing UNE, you will be studying with an industry leader in the provision of online lifelong learning. Year after year, students award us the maximum 5-star ratings for Overall Experience and Student Support in The Good Universities Guide.

Through our fully-accredited course, gain the knowledge and skills to excel as a professional planner, with competence and confidence that your knowledge is up to date with the skills to communicate to wide audience groups, strategise, and solve problems.

You’ll gain specialist knowledge across a range of important study areas including geography, sociology, law, public policy and economics so you can competently deliver the best professional planning outcomes for small- and large-scale developments across urban and regional contexts.

Together, we will explore a range of complex planning problems and learn knowledge and skills across a range of integrated study areas that contribute to finding sustainable planning solutions for communities, business and governments. Your assessment tasks will include project-based, real-life contexts. You’ll be steps ahead to apply your structural and statutory knowledge to built and natural environments within the legislative framework controlling land use.

Our Master of Urban and Regional Planning is fully accredited with the Planning Institute of Australia.

When it comes to education, UNE knows the value of flexible learning. We’ll guide you closely during your coursework, and throughout the supervision for your dissertation — we want you to gain the best outcomes from your course.

What makes our course different?

Our approach with the Master of Urban and Regional Planning is both flexible and multidisciplinary: our course integrates economic, scientific, legal and sociological considerations — knowledge that is required by planning experts to achieve optimum outcomes:

• Learn the principles and knowledge to formulate effective plans, analyse problems and generate innovate solutions.
• Complete a major research project as part of the course on a project of your choice under direct (one-to-one) supervision of an academic staff member.
• Study on campus or online with the freedom to choose your direction and electives to kickstart the next stage of your career. 
• Complete your course in 1.5 years full time or take up to six years (part-time).

Consider UNE as your partner in education. We work with you to achieve your career goals — we are here to support you through the challenges, and to help future proof your career. UNE is an industry leader in the provision of online learning for teachers and our students consistently award us 5-star ratings for Overall Experience and Student Support in The Good Universities Guide.

UNE is an industry leader in the provision of online learning for teachers and we are the only university to be awarded 5 stars for our overall experience, 14 years in a row.

Students complete two trimesters of coursework (48 credit points) followed by one trimester of research (24 credit points) in which the student will undertake a full-trimester research dissertation.

Planners balance science, aesthetics and community interests in the planning of healthy urban, rural and regional communities and environments. They work with community members, developers and elected officials to create places that optimize the use or preservation of society’s environmental, economic, social, cultural aesthetic, and infrastructure assets.