Planning
Planning is the course which involves basic knowledge and training about professional planning. It teaches students basic planning techniques, which helps them to create something functional and comfortable with the help of available resources. Through the course, the students are given theoretical and practical knowledge about planning, engineering and designing urban human settlements.
This is a relatively newer field with a great scope and huge demand these days. Professional planners play a very critical role in shaping our environment: economically, environmentally, socially & culturally having a significant impact on the factors that influence our lives. Bachelor of Planning program has been designed to provide knowledge and skills required for planning in an increasingly complex and diverse world. Planners help decide the design and appearance of cities and towns as well as their services, facilities and communities.
The aim of the bachelor professional study is to produce personnel for the government and corporate sectors, able to perform various activities to improve infrastructure such as Design of Large Townships, Institutions, Landscaped Environmental Planning to Conservation of Heritage Sites and building and resolving challenges related to urban human settlements.
Courses
There are multiple levels of courses available in the field of Planning and some important graduate, post-graduate programs offered are given below:
Bachelor of Planning (B.Plan): An undergraduate program in planning with a duration of 4 years. The program aims to build in students competent business acumen through advanced study of general subjects such as Fundamentals of Urban and Regional Planning, Evolution of Aesthetics, Culture and Technology, Basic Architectural Design, Ecology, Environment and Resource Development and Management etc
Master of Planning (M.Plan): A two year postgraduate programme after B.Plan with specializations in:
- Plan – Environmental Planning
- Plan – Housing
- Plan – Regional Planning
- Plan – Transport Planning
- Plan – Urban Planning
PhD in Planning: PhD is possible after M.Plan. The duration of PhD is between 3 to 5 years.
Required Skills
The skills required for Planning courses include:
- Adapt to change
- Analytical & Creative thinking
- Critical Thinking
- Imagination and Graphical visualisation
- Leadership skills
- Logical Reasoning
Eligibility Criteria
It is required for a mathematics background to pursue a course in Planning.
Bachelor of Planning (B.Plan): The basic eligibility criteria for admissions to B.Plan is that the candidates should have passed 10+2 level examination with Mathematics as one of subjects with at least 50% aggregate marks. The admission process for this course is based on entrance tests at national or state or institution level according to the institutes.
Master of Planning (M.Plan): The eligibility criteria for M.Plan admissions is that the candidate should pass Bachelor of Planning or BTech civil or BArch or equivalent subjects from a recognized university with an aggregate of 50%. The selections will be based on score in GATE or other entrance tests.
PhD in Planning: Admissions to Ph.D are done through entrance exams and interviews conducted by individual universities. Candidates those who have qualified their postgraduate program in Planning or allied specializations with minimum aggregate marks of 50% and above are eligible for admission.
Entrance Examination
Bachelor of Planning: Following are some of the entrance examinations for BArch.
JEE Main Paper 2 is the entrance examination for the admission of B.Plan for NITs and CFTIs.The exam is conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA). It is conducted twice every year, usually during the months of January and April.The exam pattern of B.Planning contains 3 sections.
- PART 1 – Mathematics
- PART 2 – Aptitude Test
- PART 3 – Planning Based Questions
Master of Planning: GATE (Graduate Aptitude Test for Engineering) is the entrance examination for M.Arch for getting admissions in IITs ,NITs, CFTIs, Central Universities and State Universities.
For getting admissions in state universities, central universities and deemed universities the candidate should apply for respective entrance examinations and some universities are considering NATA score.
Job Profiles
The following are some of the job profiles for Planning graduates:
- Assistant Manager
- Assistant Professor
- Design Architect
- Design Planner
- Higher Education Lecturer
- Interior Designer
- Planning Engineer
- Project Planner
- Regional Planner
- Urban Planner
Top Recruiters
Planning professionals have opportunities in both Government and private sectors. Followings are some of the firms where jobs for planning experts are available:
- Archaeological Department
- Architecture Firms
- Consultancy Firm.
- Contracting firms
- Development & Planning Department of Railways (DPDR)
- Different projects
- Factories
- Housing and Urban Development
- Ministry of Defence
- National Building Organisation (NBO)
- Production Units
- Public Work Department (PWD)
- Town & Country Planning Organisations
Institutions
AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education) and CoA (Council of Architecture) are the governing bodies of Architecture courses in India. After the successful completion of B.Arch course a candidate should register in CoA . Also the colleges in respective states are affiliated to state technological universities. IITs, NITs, CFTIs, Central Universities and Deemed Universities are different from this and work as autonomous institutes under the supervision of selected governing bodies.
National level institutions offering Bachelor of Planning (B.Plan)
| Name of the institution | State |
|---|---|
| School of Planning and Architecture - Vijayawada | Andhra Pradesh |
| Nirma University - Ahmedabad | Gujarat |
| Sardar Patel University - Vallabh Vidyanagar | Gujarat |
| Amity University - Gurugram | Haryana |
| GD Goenka University - Gurgaon | Haryana |
| University of Mysore - School of Planning and Architecture | Karnataka |
| Visvesvaraya Technological University - Belagaum | Karnataka |
| Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology - Bhopal | Madhya Pradesh |
| School of Planning and Architecture - Bhopal | Madhya Pradesh |
| College of Engineering - Pune | Maharashtra |
| School of Planning and Architecture | New Delhi |
| College of Engineering and Technology - Bhubaneswar | Odisha |
| Lovely Professional University - Phagwara | Punjab |
| University of Technology - Jaipur | Rajasthan |
| Karpagam Academy of Higher Education - Coimbatore | Tamilnadu |
| Integral University - Lucknow | Uttar Pradesh |
| University of Petroleum & Energy Studies - Dehradun | Uttarakhand |
National level institutions offering Master of Planning (M.Plan)
Questions & Answers
Q) Is B.Arch and B.Planning the same course?
A) There are many differences between B.Arch and B.Planning and each program has its own distinctive features. The main difference between the duration of the course. For B.Arch is a 5 year course and B.Planning is a four year course.For Eligibility criteria , syllabus and work profile are also different.
Q) What are the responsibilities of a planner?
A) A planning professional’s main task is to make optimum use of resources available in front of him/her and create a functional and comfortable built environment using those resources. Planners are involved in design, planning and construction of human settlements, cities and towns.