City and regional planning discipline is concerned with the effective planning and management of human settlements as well as the protection of the built and natural environment and resource utilization. Planning contributes to the shaping of physical/spatial developments in all types of settlements—from the national level to the local scale—within a framework of order/regulation. The act of city planning is the process of determining, forecasting, and planning land use, production and consumption areas, transportation networks, and the overall spatial structure in urban areas in an interactive manner with the entirety of social relations. It is an applied science and professional discipline that defines research (analysis–synthesis), planning–design, and implementation activities aimed at shaping cities that are accessible and livable for everyone based on the principle of sustainability.

A City Planner is a professional who has completed the four-year undergraduate program in City and Regional Planning and has registered with the Chamber of City Planners of TMMOB, thereby earning the right to practice the planning profession. In broader terms, a City Planner is an individual who plays a decisive role in the ecological, spatial, socio-cultural, economic, institutional, and managerial decision-making processes in the context of planning–design and implementation studies for urban and rural settlements, and who is capable of offering alternative proposals and solutions to current issues and challenges.

The education provided by the City and Regional Planning Department consists of theoretical courses that require the synthesis of a multitude of different disciplines, along with studio work. The theoretical courses include fundamental information across a wide range of fields (Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Engineering, Economics, Social Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, Geography, Public Relations, Education, Law, Information Science, Psychology, Sociology, Quantitative Techniques, etc.) that support the studio work. In the studios, research, analysis, and planning techniques are taught in sample areas of varying scales (city blocks, cities, metropolitan areas, or regions) depending on the academic year, and plans are produced.

Graduates have employment opportunities in various fields in both the public and private sectors based on the interdisciplinary nature of the City and Regional Planning Department. Our graduates; the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change, the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Ministry of Industry and Technology, the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, and the Ministry of Development within central and provincial organizational units, in the relevant units of local administrations such as Governorships, Metropolitan and Provincial–District Municipalities, in Universities and Research and Development Centers, in City and Regional Planning–Architecture and Urban Design companies, in investor firms in the construction–building sector, and in finance and construction companies in the real estate appraisal–development sector, can serve as City Planners.