Bachelor of Urban and Regional Planning

The purpose of the program is to provide students with advanced planning education covering all aspects of human settlement planning and sustainable development of the Built Environment that are needed by the professional Town Planner. The program is designed for those who intend to become professional town planners and who possess a good matric foundation or qualification. The program will ensure that graduates are well-equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary for them to compete with their colleagues in the profession and in allied professions as they work in tandem toward shaping the growth and development of the built environment.

Reasons for studying at UJ

• UJ offers not only a special program called the First Year Experience to help orientate students throughout the first year but we also offer a Senior Student Experience that gears students toward the workplace!
• Grab the opportunity to participate in a variety of sports and train alongside Olympians and Paralympians on state-of-the-art pitches, tracks, and fields, or just keep fit by joining one of the gyms on each of our 4 campuses.
• Be part of a young, vibrant, and agile university that reflects and adapts easily to our country’s aspirations, while maintaining global relevance through numerous international partnerships.
• 178 Internationally respected and accepted qualifications.
• Join a university that cares enough to have raised over R300 million since the start of 2016 in order to support the Missing Middle Campaign. UJ also ensures that more than 6 000 needy students have two healthy meals per day.
• Study in the vibrant City of Gold – the economic hub of South Africa. Join a vibrant, cosmopolitan, progressive group of students and academics on their way to re-imagining the future!
• UJ offers an amazing on-campus experience whether you live in one of UJ’s residences, belong to a day house, or whether you just want to socialize at the Student Centres on all campuses.
• We ensure the health, safety, and security of all our students through our own on-campus health services and UJ Protection Services.
• Did you know that during the first five years of UJ’s existence it doubled its targeted research output and to this day, continues to break records!

Shanghai Ranking

• World Rankings: 601-700 in the world / 5th in South Africa and 6th in Africa
• Global Ranking of Academic Subjects (GRAS):

Hospitality & Tourism Management: 18th in the world, 1st in South Africa and Africa
Sociology: Top 150 in the world, 1st and only one ranked in South Africa and Africa
Public Administration: Top 150 in the world, 1st and only one ranked in South Africa and Africa
Education: Top 300 in the world, 1st in South Africa and Africa
Earth Sciences: Top 300 in the world, 2nd in South Africa and Africa
Geography: Top 300 in the world, 2nd in South Africa and Africa
Chemical Engineering: Top 400 in the world, joint 1st in South Africa and Africa
Political Sciences: Top 400 in the world, 3rd in South Africa and Africa
Physics: Top 400 in the world, 3rd in South Africa and Africa
Management: Top 500 in the world, 1st in South Africa and Africa
Ecology: Top 500 in the world

Quacquarelli Symonds (QS)

• World Rankings: 434 in the world, in the Top 1.4% / 3rd in South Africa and Africa
• Subject Rankings:

English Language & Literature: Top 250 in the world, joint 3rd in South Africa and Africa
Chemical Engineering: Top 350 in the world, joint 3rd in South Africa, and joint 4th in Africa
Education & Training: Top 350 in the world, 5th in South Africa and Africa
Economics & Econometrics: Top 400 in the world, joint 4th in South Africa, and joint 5th in
Africa Agriculture & Forestry: Top 400 in the world, 6th in South Africa
Physics & Astronomy: Top 450 in the world, joint 2nd in South Africa, and joint 3rd in Africa
Environmental Sciences: Top 450 in the world, 6th in South Africa and Africa
Chemistry: Top 500 in the world, joint 3rd in South Africa, and joint 6th in Africa
Mechanical, Aeronautical & Manufacturing Engineering: Top 500 in the world, 5th in South Africa
Medicine: Top 650 in the world

• QS Graduate Employability Rankings:

Top 500 in the world, joint 4th in South Africa

Times Higher Education (THE)

• World Rankings: 601-800 in the world / Joint 7th in South Africa
• Subject Rankings:

Law: Top 201+ in the world, joint 4th in South Africa and Africa
Education: Top 300 in the world, joint 3rd in South Africa and Africa
Psychology: Top 400 in the world, joint 2nd in South Africa and Africa
Arts & Humanities: Top 400 in the world, joint 3rd in South Africa and Africa
Social Sciences: Top 400 in the world, 4th in South Africa and Africa
Life Sciences: Top 500 in the world, joint 4th in South Africa, and joint 5th in Africa
Business & Economics: Top 600 in the world, joint 4th in South Africa, and joint 6th in Africa
Engineering & Technology: Top 600 in the world, joint 4th in South Africa
Clinical & Health: Top 600 in the world
Computer Science: Top 800 in the world, joint 4th in South Africa
Physical Sciences: Top 800 in the world

• THE Young University Rankings: 173 among young universities, 4th in South Africa
• THE Emerging Economies University Rankings: 116 among universities in emerging economies, 7th in South Africa

US News & World Report’s Best Global Universities Rankings (BGUR)

• World Rankings: 378 in the world / 5th in South Africa and Africa
• Subject Rankings:

Geosciences: 222 in the world, 2nd in South Africa and Africa
Chemistry: 280 in the world, 1st in South Africa and Africa
Social Sciences & Public Health: 287 in the world, 5th in South Africa and Africa
Physics: 289 in the world, 3rd in South Africa and Africa
Engineering: 392 in the world, 2nd in South Africa, and 4th in Africa
Plant & Animal Science: 424 in the world
Environment/Ecology: 463 in the world

Students who complete this program will be able to:

• systematically diagnose and solve broadly-defined planning problems by applying appropriate planning principles, techniques and methodologies;
• apply knowledge of design and theory to analyze and arrive at appropriate planning solutions to built environment problems;
• use relevant technological tools like GIS, AutoCAD, and SPSS in the design and data analysis required of professional planners;
• engage with complex issues surrounding the built environment from a planning point of view;
• manage community participation through identifying community dynamics and applying community participation techniques and facilitating a process of capacity building;
• monitor land use and development by reviewing and interpreting planning legislation, methodologies, policies, and trends;
• apply knowledge of integrated development principles in all planning related work;
• apply scoping and surveying techniques to analyze sites and solve problems;
• apply communication skills in retrieving and disseminating information;
• apply ethical principles in undertaking any planning work;
• manage planning inputs within a project through the management of time, quality, and human resources;
• work in a team;
• research plans, within the built and natural environment, to assist in facilitating land use and spatial planning; and
• conduct themselves in a professional manner.