Do you want to address the big urban challenges facing our cities? How do we increase the density and affordability of housing, while making suburbs better places to live? How can we adapt to our hotter and drier climate using nature-based approaches? Where and how will we work in the future and what role do our post-industrial lands play? How will the transition to electrification transform how we move about and the infrastructure we need?
The Master of Urban Planning and Design at Monash gives you the framework and tools to engage with these challenges to shape the city of tomorrow as we work towards an environmentally sustainable and people-centred future.
Our professional degree is accredited by the Planning Institute of Australia (PIA). It is a unique course set in an architectural school that combines knowledge in urban planning, such as regulation, economics, governance and engagement, with spatial and design approaches.
What and how you will learn
Focusing on real-world, project-based learning in neighbourhoods in cities and towns, you’ll become adept at combining the technical competencies and creative capabilities that planners and urban designers use in practice. You will grow your analytical and design skills to understand and intervene in urban contexts at a variety of scales; develop your research skills to learn and apply knowledge drawing on Australian and international case studies; and strengthen your graphic, written and spoken skills to communicate your ideas effectively.
Your self-driven study will be supplemented by knowledge from academics, urban design and planning practitioners and policy makers through guest talks, studio reviews and field trips, alongside learning from your fellow students in a studio setting.
You’ll connect with stakeholders and professionals by regularly presenting your work for their review and feedback and through optional work placements – this strong alignment to industry is an important part of our course culture.
Your background and future collaborators
You can apply to this course from different undergraduate degrees – we attract students from a rich range of backgrounds such as architecture, landscape architecture, design, economics, engineering, science, teaching, geography and music. You’ll build on what you already know which will serve as a strong platform for the next stage in your studies in urban planning and design.
The mix of students in our course gives you the opportunity to collaborate and learn from each other. As a small group, you will become a connected cohort and you’ll also meet and study with architecture students in shared studios and study units.
Your career opportunities
By working in interdisciplinary teams that encourage interaction, collaboration and collegiate working environments, you’ll be employment-ready for a challenging and rewarding career. You might work in local or state government as a statutory, strategic planner or urban designer; or in practice with a small local or a large international firm; or in not-for-profit organisations in Australia and overseas. Your career choices are many and varied.
Regardless of where you would like to apply your skills and knowledge, our Master of Urban Planning and Design will prepare you to be a strategic planning professional capable of resolving some of the world's most complex urban issues.