Master of City Planning

The Master of City Planning at UNSW is a two-year, professionally accredited postgraduate degree that allows you to bring experience from previous study to launch a career in urban and regional planning.

City planning is an exciting, varied and progressive profession that plays a pivotal role in decisions shaping the future of cities and regions. Through a career in planning, you’ll improve lives by designing cities that are sustainable, equitable, healthy and inspiring.

As part of the Faculty of Arts, Design & Architecture you’ll join a uniquely interdisciplinary and supportive community. You’ll work alongside students and professionals from across the built environment, just as you would in the workplace. You’ll benefit from UNSW’s strong ties to industry and world-leading research in city planning, as you explore diverse subjects including city renewal, city analytics, housing policy and healthy sustainable communities.

In your second year you’ll undertake a major capstone project, which allows you to deepen your expertise in an area of specialisation and empowers you to kick-start your career by adding to your professional portfolio.

• Gain professional accreditation with the Planning Institute of Australia (PIA)
• Connect with Australia’s leading urban research centre, the City Futures Research Centre
• Adobe Creative Cloud subscription included from the day you start for the duration of your studies
• Study in and learn from one of the world’s great cities. Sydney will be your classroom
• Establish networks through our strong industry links and partnerships
• Study at a Built Environment School that ranks 4th in Australia and #35 in the world (QS World University Rankings by Subject, 2024)
• Prioritise career success – UNSW won the Australian Financial Review’s Most Employable Students Award in 2023
• Be supported by our diverse, open and inclusive Arts, Design & Architecture community
• Access world-class alumni connections
• Join a global top 20 university (QS World University Rankings, 2024)
• Join a community that’s part of the prestigious Group of Eight (Go8) universities

To gain entry into the Master of City Planning, you’ll need a bachelor’s degree with a credit average or above (Weighted Average Mark 65+).

If you have already completed an Australian planning degree that is accredited by the Planning Institute of Australia, this program is not designed for you. Instead, please consider the Master of Property and Development, the Master of Landscape Architecture or the Master of Environmental Management.

If you have an undergraduate degree in a cognate discipline, or you’ve partially completed a relevant postgraduate program, you can apply to have this study recognised via Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL). If your prior study is recognised, credit for certain subjects will be counted towards the Master of City Planning.

What is a cognate discipline?

City and urban planning are interdisciplinary in nature, which is why we recognise the benefits that students from diverse academic backgrounds bring to this program. If you’ve studied any of the following subject areas in your undergraduate degree, you may be eligible for RPL.

• Built environment subject areas, including: architecture, landscape architecture, construction, property development and urban design.
• Social, economic and environmental science subject areas, including: geography, urban studies and sociology, demography, economics, social policy and politics, communication studies, health studies, international development, environmental ecology, environmental management, environmental sustainability.
• Law/Jurisprudence
• Environmental and civil engineering subject areas, including surveying and spatial science degrees.

RPL for these study areas will be limited to 24 Units of Credit (UOC), which is normally the equivalent of 4 subjects.