Handbook

Research is a fundamental underpinning to urban planning both as a discipline and practice, and preparation of a thesis acts as the primary capstone activity for students completing the Master of City Planning degree. It enables students to deepen knowledge in an aspect of planning and urban studies and demonstrate capacity to develop and evaluate arguments, perform critical analysis and synthesis and apply creative thinking to complex problems. The focus of the research is determined by the student, and will normally have been initially developed through the preparation of a research proposal and literature review as part of a preceding faculty research design course, BENV7020. Students are assigned a supervisor, who will offer advice and provide feedback throughout the research process and thesis preparation. Students will usually undertake primary fieldwork, and put into practice core research and analysis skills developed throughout the degree. Preparation of a c15,000 word thesis also build students’ capacity to recognise and demonstrate the importance of coherence, logic, structure, relevance and accuracy in written outputs, presented in a creative and compelling way [edited from UNSW Handbook, 2019].