Master's Programme in Urban and Regional Planning
This Master´s programme provides students with in-depth knowledge on urban and regional planning in an international perspective. It enables students to develop critical insights into planning theories, cultures and practices, apply social science methods, and to understand the varying institutional and spatial contexts in cities and regions.
Urban and regional planning is constantly challenged by the transformation of society as well as by changes in our knowledge about and understanding of the world. This means that the values and applications of planning have to be continuously critically assessed.
This multidisciplinary programme is designed for students who wish to deepen their knowledge of the terms and conditions of planning in Sweden and internationally. It is intended both for those who have a recent undergraduate degree and those who have some working experience and would like to get new impulses and insights.
The programme is linked to the research profiles The Stockholm Urban and Regional Research Environment (SURE), Historical Geography and Landscape Studies, The Population Geography Resarch Group, and Urban Africa.
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Programme overview
The master programme involve the acquisition of specialist knowledge, competence and skills in relation to the first cycle (bachelor), and in addition to the requirements for the first cycle the programme:
- further develop the ability of students to integrate and make autonomous use of their knowledge,
- develop the students' ability to deal with complex phenomena, issues and situations, and
- develop the students' potential for professional activities that demand considerable autonomy, or for research and development work.
Year 1
The first semester consists of core courses and the second semester of optional courses.
Semester 1 (autumn semester)
The first semester include three core courses which are compulsory:
Theoretical Perspectives on Planning, 7.5 HECs
Planning Practices in Cities and Regions, 7.5 HECs
Advanced Method in Human Geography and Urban and Regional Planning, 15 HECsSemester 2 (spring semester)
Courses at the Department of Human Geography:
Challenges for Planning in the Global South, 7.5 HECs, period B, first cycle
Cultural Landscapes and Society, 15 HECs, period C–D
Field Project in Urban and Regional Planning, 7.5 HECs, period B
Gender and Geography, 7.5 HECs, period A, first cycle, even years (e.g. 2024)
GIS and Spatial Analysis II, 7.5 HECs, period C, first cycle
GIS and Spatial Analysis III, 7.5 HECs, period D, first cycle
GIS in the Social Sciences, 15 HECs, period A–B, odd years (e.g. 2025)
Place, Identity and Migration, 7.5 HECs, period A, first cycle, odd years (e.g. 2025)
Project on Assignment in Urban and Regional Planning, 15 HECs, period A–B and C–D
Space, City, Culture, 7.5 HECs, period C
Spatial Planning across Europe, 7.5 HECs, period D
Urban Governance, 7.5 HECs, period A, first cycle
Urbanization and Environment, 15 HECs, period A–B
Work Experience in Urban and Regional Planning, 15 HECs, period A–B and C–DThe second and third semester consists of 45 HECs of optional second cycle courses in urban and regional planning, and 15 HECs of free courses. Exchange studies are possible at one of our partner universities abroad.
All second cycle courses at the Department of Human Geography listed on this page can be included in the main field of study (i.e. urban and regional planning). Note that some courses are part of the first cycle (undergraduate level) and can only be included in the degree as electives (a.k.a. free courses).
In the student study plan individual preferences can be met by courses inclunding in the following disciplines (partly depending on previous studies):
Human Geography and Urban and Regional planning
Economics
Statistics
Economic History
Ethnology
Sociology
Political Science
Physical Geography and Environmental Managment
ArcheologyYear 2
In the third semester you study optional courses or do exchange studies, and in the fourth semster you write a thesis.
Semester 3 (autumn semester)
Courses at the Department of Human Geography:
Agricultural Geography, 15 HECs, period A–B, even years (e.g. 2024)
Field Studies in Urban and Regional Planning, 15 HECs, period A–B & C–D
GIS and Spatial Analysis I, 7.5 HECs, period A–B, first cycle
Migration and Social Change – A life course perspective, 15 HECs, period C–D
Project on Assignment in Urban and Regional Planning, 15 HECs, period A–B & C–D
Space and Society – Theoretical Approaches in Human Geography, 15 HECs, period A–B
Work Experience in Urban and Regional Planning, 15 HECs, period A–B & C–DSemester 4 (spring semester)
The fourth semster consists of the compulsory master's thesis course:
Master's Thesis in Urban and Regional Planning, 30 HECs
Independent project
Examples of student projects completed in the fourth semester within the course Master's Thesis in Urban and Regional Planning:
- A Struggle for Public Space. A Case Study of Three Parks in Stone Town, Zanzibar
- Accessibility to sports facilities for girls with foreign background: A mixed methods study exploring accessibility and experiences within the sports movement in Stockholm and Huddinge municipality
- Articulating into the Global Production Network of Music Beyond Firms: A Tale of the Music Industry in Stockholm, Sweden
- Cargo Cycles in Urban Freight Transport: Obstacles and facilitating factors for utilising cargo cycles in urban freight transport in Stockholm, Sweden
- Contesting Rationalities of "Developed" Sanitation. A case study of the Urine Diversion Dehydration Toilet (UDDT) - Programme in Durban, South Africa
- Education and Development. A spatial-econometric approach on spatial change and permanence in southern Brazil
- Holding the borders of Mount Carmel. A study of management and land issues in a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve
- Housing for whom? Urban development and housing commodification in a suburban area of Stockholm, Sweden
- Indirect effect of flooding on road accessibility
- Let's Do Away with Urban: Autoethnographic Adventures in Stockholms län
- Managed realignment - a future climate change adaptation strategy in Sweden? Case studies from Swedish municipalities
- Non-Statutory Practices in Regional Spatial Planning: A comparative study of three Swedish regions
- Opportunities for Collaborative Planning in South Africa? An analysis of the practice 're-blocking' by the South African SDI Alliance in Cape Town
- Pathways to rural resilience: A case study analysis of a rural municipality’s response to the “refugee crisis”
- Pokémon GO and the city: How Pokémon GO players in Uppsala use, experience and connect to the city
- Residential segregation of poverty: A longitudinal study of socio-economic segregation in Stockholm County 1991-2016
- Risk, Rail and the Region: A spatial analysis of regional differences of infrastructural safety and the risk of accidents at Swedish level-crossings
- Socially mixed housing: A study on the operationalisation and outcomes of social mix policy in Sweden
- Steel and mining in Norrbotten: addressing spatial challenges related to re-industrialisation
- Stockholm’s New Golden Bridge: A material infrastructure, fluid assemblage or megaproject?
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How to apply
You apply via universityadmissions.se.
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More information
Why choose the Master's Programme in Urban and Regional Planning at Stockholm University?
- High quality programme in close connection to front line research and to society.
- Programme preparing for professional careers as well as for studies at the doctoral level.
- Programme includes different course formats (e.g. field courses, lectures given by practitioners, group and single work, in-depth discussion of literature etc.).
- Programme encounters with a truly international perspective on planning work across Europe and beyond.
- The fast growing city-region Stockholm offers a multi-faceted laboratory of current planning practice and a wide-range of different planning projects.
- High ranked, healthy founded and well operated university.
- Good campus facilities including libraries, GIS laboratories and places for team work and individual studies.
- Campus situated in the green, safe and beautiful City of Stockholm, the capital of Sweden.
- Informal atmosphere between students and faculty.
Top reasons to choose Stockholm University
Learning objectives
After completion of the programme, students are expected to be able to:
- Demonstrate knowledge and understanding in urban and regional planning, including both a broad proficiency in the discipline and important specialized knowledge in certain parts of the discipline, plus detailed insight into current scholarship.
- Demonstrate detailed knowledge of methods in urban and regional planning.
- Demonstrate an ability to systematically but critically integrate knowledge and to analyse, evaluate and manage complex phenomena, research questions and situations even with limited information.
- Demonstrate an ability to creatively, independently, and critically identify and formulate research questions; to plan and carry out relevant tasks with appropriate methods within a given time-frame, thereby contributing to the advancement of the discipline; and to evaluate this work.
- Demonstrate an ability to describe and discuss – orally and in writing, in national and international contexts, and in dialogue with different groups – one’s conclusions and the knowledge and arguments that are the basis for these conclusions.
- Demonstrate the necessary competence that is required to be able to participate in research and development (R & D) or to work independently in other relevant activities.
- Demonstrate an ability to evaluate the relevant academic, social and ethical aspects related to different questions and topics in urban and regional planning, and demonstrate an awareness of the ethical aspects of R & D.
- Demonstrate insight into the possibilities and limits of research, its roll in society and people’s responsibility for how research is used.
- Demonstrate an ability to identify one’s needs for additional knowledge and to take responsibility for one’s own learning.
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Meet us
Meet our teachers
“What we today consider to be ‘local’ is influenced by international debates and policy norms”
Interview with the programme director, Professor Peter Schmitt
Profile page of Peter Schmitt -
Career opportunities
The programme leads to a Master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning.
The two year Master of Science with a main field of study in Urban and Regional Planning will provide students with qualifications which will give an obvious entry point for careers in process management and qualified analytical, development and administrative work in planning at local, regional, national and international level.
Typical jobs are investigator, planning officer and project manager. Examples of other titles are city planner, consultant, desk officer, development engineer, environmental planner, heritage officer, land use specialist, planning analyst, planning director, policy advisor, process manager, regional planner, research fellow, senior planner and transportation planner.
The degree offers an excellent grounding for students wishing to pursue a Doctorate.
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Contact
Programme Director
- Visiting address
The Geo-Science Building, room X321
Svante Arrhenius väg 8, Frescati
Academic Counselling
- Visiting address
The Geo-Science Building, room X331
Svante Arrhenius väg 8, Frescati
Student Affairs Office
- Visiting address
The Geo-Science Building, room X326
Svante Arrhenius väg 8, Frescati
- Office hours
Alternating and flexible hours
- Phone hours
Alternating and flexible hours
