City and Regional Planning in Turkey

City and regional planning (urban planning) is a four-year bachelor's that teaches you to plan how cities and regions use land, housing, transport, infrastructure and green space, through design studios, GIS and policy analysis. The option on this page is TED University in Ankara, which teaches in English and lists $11,800 a year, with scholarships of 25% to 100%.

Planning sits between architecture, geography, economics and law. Architects design buildings; planners decide what may be built where, how neighbourhoods connect and how a city grows, and they write the plans, regulations and strategies that guide it.

Every semester is built around a planning studio, where you work on a real site in teams: first a neighbourhood, later a whole district, a city and a region. Around the studio run courses in planning history and theory, urban sociology and economics, statistics, GIS and remote sensing, transport planning, housing, environmental planning and planning law.

In the final year you produce an integrated plan for a city or region and defend it before a jury. Summer internships in municipalities, planning consultancies or development agencies are standard and show you how plans are approved in practice.

TED University admits international bachelor's applicants on the school certificate and transcript or on international exam results. Mathematics and geography grades, plus some drawing or design experience, help your application.

• School documents: certificate and transcript (the 11-year certificate for Russian and CIS applicants), translations and the Ministry of National Education equivalence at registration.
• English: TEDU teaches in English, so you need an accepted English score or must pass its proficiency exam; otherwise the preparatory year comes first.
• Portfolio: not usually required for planning, but a few sketches, maps or photo studies of a place you know are useful at interviews.
• Scholarships: TEDU publishes scholarship levels of 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%; the university decides who receives them.

• Studio culture: ask about studio sizes, jury practice and real municipal projects.
• GIS and data: check that GIS, remote sensing and spatial statistics are taught with current software.
• Accreditation: in Türkiye, planning programmes can be evaluated by ŞPÖDAK, the planning education accreditation board; ask about the programme's status.
• City context: Ankara, as the capital, gives access to ministries, municipalities and development agencies for internships.
• Language: an English-taught degree makes it easier to continue to a master's or work abroad.

Planners work in municipal and metropolitan planning departments, development agencies, planning and transport consultancies, real-estate developers, NGOs and international development organisations, and in GIS and smart-city roles. Many continue to a master's in urban design, transport or regional development.

In Türkiye, planners who prepare statutory plans register with the Chamber of City Planners, and public posts follow civil-service rules. Abroad, the title of planner may be protected by a professional institute, so check the recognition route in the country where you want to work.

TEDU's international fee page lists one annual fee of $11,800 for all Faculty of Architecture and Design programmes and does not print an academic year, so confirm the amount for your intake. With a 50% scholarship the net fee would be $5,900 a year.

Studio courses add costs for printing, model materials and a laptop able to run GIS and drawing software; housing in Ankara is generally cheaper than in Istanbul.

A personal strategy, requirement checks, selection of agreed options, document preparation, applications, and support are provided under an agreement with StudyU. For city and regional planning we check TEDU's current criteria and scholarship options and prepare the application file. The university decides admission and scholarships, Türkiye's Ministry of National Education decides school-certificate equivalence, the consulate decides the visa, the migration authority issues the residence permit, and the dormitory or landlord confirms housing.