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Education

Foundations for the Future is PIA’s 2008 review of planning education. The Institute wants to ensure its Education Policy it continues to meet the needs of the profession and to do this, it needs to identify the scope and trends affecting education and training in planning, and reflect on the Institute’s role in supporting and promoting planning education. Foundations for the Future requires broad participation from various sectors to shape the effectiveness and future direction of PIA’s education involvement and agenda.

The Planning Education Discussion Paper released in 2008, sets the context for this review and provides key questions and recommendations for consideration. It aims to identify trends and issues of importance to planning and planning education, and possible or preferable ways these may be effectively addressed by the Institute.


In recent years, there have been significant changes in the planning profession and workplaces within Australia, and also across education and planning education systems. PIA acknowledges that there is a need to continually review planning education within Australia and currently this is to occcur within the context of the following practices and trends:

  • The recognition of specialised planning disciplines (mirrored in the development of Chapters in PIA) outside of the traditional urban and regional planning with the implication that specialist types of planning skill sets have emerged and will be required by the planning industry.
  • Recognition that universities are not the only providers of planning education, and need to identify roles of diverse providers in skilling people to take part in planning (including growth of vocational programs for planning assistants).
  • The move by PIA to the formal certification of planners as Certified Practicing Planners and a much greater focus by PIA on professional development (PD).
  • The accreditation of courses and the need to ensure that content is relevant to the profession, the needs of employers and the practice of planning.
  • The rapid growth in the number of universities seeking accreditation or interim accreditation for new courses at undergraduate and postgraduate level.
  • The findings and recommendations of PIA’s 2004 National Inquiry into Planning Education & Employment in respect to planning education.
  • The widening role of planning including the observation that an undergraduate planning program cannot be ‘all things to all people’.
  • Moves by some universities in Australia to follow overseas degree models (especially the ‘Bologna model’ with generic undergraduate degrees and professional or specialised postgraduate degrees).
  • Increasing pressure for planning programs (especially undergraduate) to impart generic skills and to deliver an all-round education in theoretical and practical aspects of planning.
  • Changes in the mix of undergraduate and postgraduate planning programs across Australia.
  • The pressure on planning programs to consider and include a range of subjects and disciplines such as GIS, environmental management, urban design, project management, work practice - the sheer difficulty of producing a graduate who is across every aspect of the widening discipline of planning
  • Increasing numbers of international students in Australian planning programs, many of whom seek permanent residency on completion of their studies.
  • Changed resourcing of universities, impacts on planning programs and the growing need to supplement or replace diminishing Commonwealth funding.
  • The need to have regard to the circumstances in university planning schools.
  • Views of employers (and need to address an increasingly diverse set of employers), as planning diversifies.


PIA accredits undergraduate and postgraduate planning programs at Australian universities to provide professional recognition and to provide for Membership of the Institute through the Urban & Regional Planning Chapter. The PIA Accreditation Policy, which sets the requirements and process for accreditation of tertiary qualifications in planning, was adopted by PIA Board of Directors in November 2010.

For more information about PIA’s education agendas, or about Foundations for the Future, please contact the National Education Manager .