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University of Cape Town (UCT)

The Department of Urban and Regional Planning was founded at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in 1965.  By 1973 it was offering a two-year course-work Masters programme, renamed as the Masters in City and Regional Planning (MCRP).  Both this programme and a new, related programme, the Master of City Planning and Urban Design, were granted recognition by the South African Institute of Town and Regional Planners in November 1977.  In 1986 these degree programmes became part of a newly restructured School of Architecture and Planning.  Subsequently, the School expanded to incorporate Geomatics, and the planning and urban design programmes were complemented with a new Masters programme in Landscape Architecture.  Our two-year MCRP Programme was split, in 2017, into a one-year Bachelor of City Planning (Honours) programme and a one-year Masters of City and Regional Planning programme.  Both programmes continue to have a strong emphasis spatial and environmental justice.

The Honours and Masters programmes at UCT recognise the everchanging demands of cities and regions in Africa and in the global South, in the 21st century.  This requires us to engage with issues of poverty, inequality, informality, rapid urbanization and environmental change.  Our partnership with affiliates of Slum Dwellers International and Development Action Group (DAG) allows students to engage with the issue of informality and tenure insecurity.  The close link to the African Centre for Cities and the Association of African Planning Schools exposes students to the diversities of urban life on the continent and the exciting potentials which these offer.  The Honours programme (which is shared in part with the Landscape Architecture Programme) is concerned with planning in local and metropolitan settings.  Studio projects are supported by lecture-based courses in planning theory, environmental issues, urban infrastructure, urban design, planning law, and the institutional and economic context of planning and urban development.

The Masters programme covers regional planning through both project and theory work, with a focus on the generation of economic, landscape and settlement frameworks in regional space.  The second part of this year involves individual dissertation work.

In order to register as candidate planners with SACPLAN, students need to complete both the Bachelor of City Planning (Honours) and the Masters of City and Regional Planning degrees from UCT.  Graduates from our programmes find work in government at all levels, in private practice, in NGOs, in related fields of environmental, transport or housing development, and in the property finance sector.

School website:   http://www.apg.uct.ac.za/

List of SACPLAN accredited planning qualifications currently being offered:

Qualification SACPLAN Registration Category Notes
Master in City and Regional Planning
(MCRP) (SAQA Qualification ID 13855)
Professional Planner Two year Master’s degree
Master of City and Regional Planning
(MCRP) (SAQA Qualification ID 94631)
Professional Planner One year – candidate must have completed the Bachelor of City Planning Honours (SAQA Qualification ID 94845) that feeds into the Master of City and Regional Planning (SAQA Qualification ID 94631)
Master in City Planning and Urban Design
(MCPUD)
Professional Planner Was not accredited between September 2011 and September 2015