Is Urban Planning For You? ft. Dr. Ralph Buehler | VTMURP

This installment of What’s UP? features Associate Professor of Virginia Tech’s Urban Affairs and Planning Department located in VT's Arlington campus, Dr. Ralph Buehler. His research and teaching interests take on an international comparative perspective, contrasting transport and land-use policies, transport systems, and travel behavior in Western Europe and North America.

What’s UP? is Virginia Tech's Master of Urban Planning's (VTMURP) new campaign to get the word out about Urban Planning. Through a video series of brief interviews, we hope to delineate what Urban Planning as a field of study is all about. We will be talking to students, alumni, faculty, and planning professionals to ask them “What’s UP?”

Subscribe and connect with us on our social media platforms to stay tuned for the next episode on What’s UP?!

VTMURP's social media all @VTMURP

All stock video clips downloaded from Pexels Video

Music: Jazz Comedy - Bensound

[tonemac]

In Australia, urban planning is marketed to students as a creative, wide realm, worldly and fun course akin to sim city where you can change cities and use your wild imagination on subjective social ideas. In reality urban planning in Australia is a lot different. Its a statutory micro managed world full of spreadsheets and "cog in the wheel" decisions. It really is nothing like the courses they market. And that is the great sadness of it all really. People enter the field with high hopes and visions and realize quickly that it is just to process applications and stamp plans with no creative input at all. I would recommend all students to first ask "how does this course relate the reality of the job?" before wasting their time and their money. Property development in Australia and real estate form the bulk of the highest purchasing among our population. The town planner is often seen as an obstacle and the main thing people want from you, the only thing is just to process forms and letters quickly. That is all people actually want from your role. They don't want your creativity, your ideas etc etc. I really think it all boils down to keeping a false economy going and the town planning profession suffering just to keep its own existence and relevance in the scheme of things (from my own experience!)

[CoFutures]

Wish this video was around when I was contemplating studying urban planning - thanks for sharing your story!

[juliaz]

I'm really wondering whether urban planning is considered more a political & technical field or a design one

[tominthomas]

Hi sir, i just completed my post graduation in geography...Is there any opportunity to do a PG diploma course in urban planning preferably in foreign university

[dylrzzd]

I did Economics and Statistics, can I be allowed to pursue a graduate school in Urban Planning