Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences

For the Application Criteria of the PhD Program in City and Regional Planning, please click here.

Overview

Started education with the graduate program in 1961, Department of City and Regional Planning in METU has been offering a PhD degree in City and Regional Planning since 1977-1978 academic year.

The PhD program is organized as an 8-Semester Program (4 years). In the first four semesters, students are expected to take 8 courses. In addition to the must courses “New Tendencies in Planning” and “Space Concepts and Organization in the New Age”, five other elective courses should be taken. The Program, also, offers a thesis seminar course as a non-credited course.

After finishing the courses, the students take the Proficiency Exam in City and Regional Planning. (For the updated instructions of the exam please click here. A suggested list of readings for the Proficiency Exam can be obtained by clicking here.)

Upon successful completion of the proficiency exam, research studies and thesis writing process begin. The thesis working process is regularly supervised by the Thesis Supervisory Committees appointed by the Department.

Our department also offers an Integrated PhD program to be followed after Bachelor’s Degree.

Research Fields

City Planning, Regional Planning, Urban Design, Transportation Planning, Cultural Heritage and Conservation, Ecology and Planning, Urban Transformation, Gentrification, Tourism, Risk Management, Disaster Planning, Mitigation Planning

Curriculum

CRP 601 New Tendencies in Planning (3-0)3

CRP 602 Space Concepts and Organization in the New Age (3-0)3

CP 509 Introduction to Research Methods and Ethics in Planning and Design (2-2)3

CRP 600 Ph.D. Thesis NC

CRP 640 Doctoral Seminar NC

4 elective courses

Total Minimum Credit: 21

Number of courses with credit (min): 7

Elective Courses

CRP 710 Planning, Action and Institutions: A Critical Analysis of Planning Theories

CRP 711 Urban and Regional Development: A Critical Evaluation 

CP 551 Theories and Principles of Urban Design

CP 558 New Modes of Intervention in Planning

CP 704 Transport Policy

RP 511 Planning Theory

RP 532 Methods of Regional Analysis and Spatial Organization

RP 534 Changing Economic and Political Structure

UD 555 Parametric Urban Design

UD 701 Urban Space Research

UD 756 Parametric Urban Design II

* Apart from the elective courses offered by the Department, other courses in graduate level from the faculty of architecture or other faculties could be added as elective courses by taking into consideration the supervisor approval and thesis topic.

Year of Commencement: 1977-1978 Academic Year

Total Number of Students Graduated by 2023/2024 Fall: 141

Leaflets 

IMPORTANT NOTE: Leaflets will be updated. Please refer to the application requirements above.