The Graduate Diploma in Planning provides a new career path for design, planning and property professionals, equipping graduates with a broad understanding of planning issues alongside the negotiation skills and creative thinking required to resolve them. Whereas planning has often been seen as an approval process, UTS approaches the discipline as a critical task, one that connects communities with governments, institutions and developers. UTS firmly believes the best planners don't just apply existing regulations. UTS graduates are creative problem solvers and negotiators, able to work effectively in teams and with stakeholders to deliver workable solutions to complex residential, commercial and infrastructure development problems. Property development and planning students study a common first year, which develops a mutual understanding of how to balance private and public interests in urban development. Course aims Through this course, students proactively engage with policy, environmental and demographic frameworks to understand how planning decisions shape the urban environment over the long term. This engagement is multidisciplinary, spanning planning, urban design, property, architecture/landscape architecture, economics, spatial analysis, law and urban ecology. The degree has both a strong sustainability focus and an emphasis on the property development cycle. Students learn about land markets and feasibility studies, and acquire the technical skills to perform complex and evidence-based forecasting. They also learn how to conduct large scale structure planning and design master planned developments for communities. Students achieve these outcomes by applying theory to real-world scenarios in real-world learning environments, including peer-led, multidisciplinary teamwork and discussions, case studies and field trips, with opportunities to travel internationally. Careers The degree enables professionals to change careers due to the multidisciplinary nature of the learning. Graduates are in public sector positions, including working for state and local government, and in private consulting and property development firms. There are also careers in strategic planning on major developments and projects, master planning with financial analysis, and the increasingly important area of sub-regional planning.