Land Use & Regional Development Planning

The focus of the degree programme is on land use and regional development planning. Land use issues and the dynamics of regions requires specific analysis and planning methods, which are taught in this programme. The programme adopts a regional perspective based on principles from regional planning, human geography, urban planning, sociology and by furthermore allowing these different approaches come into dialogue with one another.

The programme has its basic foundations in regional science which was founded in the late 1940s when some economists began to become dissatisfied with the low level of regional economic analysis and felt an urge to upgrade it. But even in this early era, the founders of regional science expected to catch the interest of people from a wide variety of disciplines. Regional science’s formal roots date to the aggressive campaigns by Walter Isard and his supporters to promote the “objective” and “scientific” analysis of settlement, industrial location, and urban development. Isard targeted key universities and campaigned tirelessly. Accordingly, the Regional Science Association was founded in 1954, when the core group of scholars and practitioners held its first meetings independent from those initially held as sessions of the annual meetings of the American Economics Association. A reason for meeting independently undoubtedly was the group’s desire to extend the new science beyond the rather restrictive world of economists and have natural scientists, psychologists, anthropologists, lawyers, sociologists, political scientists, planners, and geographers join the club.

Knowledge & Understanding:
1) To introduce the students to the theoretical and methodological discourse on Land Use and Regional Development Planning
2) To provide the students with application tools for research problems, analytical skills which will enable them to formulate ideas and evaluate integrated regional development challenges with a solutions-oriented approach.
3) To develop individual capacities of graduate students so that they may be enabled to cultivate a spirit of original thought in a community of scholars.
4) To provide a practical training for professional work in one of these; land use mapping, planning and organization, conservation planning, agricultural planning, integrated rural and urban development, resource assessment and development, Payment for Ecosystem Services, Green Economy, Transformative development and in formulation of policy relating to Regional Development planning.

General Program Objectives

Graduate training for Masters in Land Use and Regional Development Planning will be directed towards achieving the following broad objectives:

Specific objectives are to:
The specific objectives of the Master of Geographical Sciences programme are:
(i) To build a sought-after human resource pool of graduates with geographical knowledge and skills to address contemporary and emerging issues across scales and sectors
(ii) To advance the understanding of Geographical Sciences for graduate students from diverse disciplines
(iii) To build capacity and capabilities in geographical research and information management
(iv) To impart knowledge on the integrating nature of geography for multidisciplinary response to society’s need to understand and manage the complexity of the world.

Employment Prospects
The program targets to generate experts that will support the following areas:
1. Generation of knowledge and research at both local and international levels. Geographical Sciences are at the cores of understanding place and space. The achievement of Development agenda such as the National Development Plan III (NDP III) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is hinged on research and knowledge generation in the geographical sciences.

2. Practitioners of Geographical Sciences and affiliated disciplines aimed at ensuring sustainable management of landscapes, peoples and the environments
3. Private and public consultants in Geographical Sciences and affiliated disciplines including management of landscapes, peoples and the environments.
4. Academia and educators to support training and skilling of future Geographical Scientists / Geographers at tertiary and secondary education levels.
5. Entrepreneurship and innovation for socio-development but also handle societal problems like unemployment.

Program Outcomes
Upon completion, graduates of this programme will be able to;
1) Be job creators and not job seekers
2) Understand and critically apply advanced economic and other relevant disciplinary concepts to regional and community development in developed and/or developing countries
3) Apply an interdisciplinary approach in the design, management and evaluation of community-based development projects in regional and international contexts
4) Produce scholarly reports or a thesis which demonstrate an understanding and application of skills in different themes of regional and community development
5) Apply knowledge and skills to real issues facing communities and rural regions, and inform policy making bodies about regional and community development in developed and/or developing countries

Conduct of The Program :
The Master of Land Use and Regional Development Planning is/will be hosted by the Department of Geography, Geo-informatics and Climatic Sciences in the School of Forestry, Environment and Geographical Sciences, College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Makerere University.

Target group:
This degree programme is designed principally for people working in cities who want to make a difference and for all land use and, regional science and urban scholars, from early career researchers to veteran urbanists and everyone in between. This degree programme will also hopefully inspire workers in local government, community organizations and the private sector as well as regional science and/or urban scholars to build upon the experiences of a global network to develop their own methods and frames to view, interpret and define regional and urban changes in their local geographies and contexts.

Admission Requirements
The Master in LURD programme is open to candidates in possession of at least a Lower Second Class Honors University degree or its equivalent from a recognized and chartered University or higher education institution. The programme is particularly suited to candidates who have specialized in any of the following subjects at undergraduate level: Environmental Science, Geography, Agriculture, Forestry, Soil Science, Meteorology, Hydrology/ or Water resources, Geology, Economics, Botany, Zoology, Civil Engineering and Surveying, Veterinary Sciences.

Duration of the Program:

The duration of the Masters (LURD) degree is two years each of the semesters. Each semester shall comprise 17 weeks of teaching/study and 2 weeks of examination. There will be a break of 4 weeks between semesters.

Course Assessment: Each Paper is assessed out of a total mark of 100% apportioned as follows:
(a) Coursework 40%
(b) Final Examination 60%
Designation of the award:
Master of Land Use and Regional Development Planning
Nature of the program :
Full time programme.