Bachelor in City and Regional Planning

The Undergraduate Curriculum has been designed with the understanding that the challenges facing urban planners have multiplied especially in the last two decades and the scope of tasks that planners are expected to undertake has considerably widened. As far as planning education is considered, this means that planners need to be equipped not only with conventional skills but also with the skills required to cope with the new challenges. Planners must now be capable of formulating questions in light of the inputs of a variety of disciplines.

The aim of the undergraduate program in City and Regional Planning is to train planners who can perceive holistic relationships, develop alternative views (utopian/realist) on how to transform these relationships, and produce creative designs for the future. Students are, therefore, equipped with a variety of skills ranging from quantitative analysis techniques to social and economic analyses required to understand how the urban system works.

The undergraduate curriculum comprises Planning Studio classes, which aim to equip students with professional skills, and theoretical classes, which aim to develop an understanding of a variety of urban and regional issues and to help students better understand and analyze urban and regional areas, their components, their physical and socio-economic structures, and their governance.

The program is designed with a view to offer students a wide range of elective courses to help enhance the interdisciplinary nature of planning. The elective courses start on the third year of undergraduate education and are organized in four modules: Urban Policy Module; Urban and Regional Economic Development Module; Urban Design Module; and Environment, Infrastructure, and Transport Planning Module.

The Department of City and Regional Planning also offers a Minor Program in City and Regional Planning for students from other departments of METU, who wish to improve their knowledge and understanding of urban areas, urban systems, and planning issues.