Urban and regional planning is about improving the quality of cities and regions. Professional planners assist communities, companies and governments to integrate the environmental, economic and social aspects of development from small sites up to whole regions. Planning deals with strategic work (long-range planning) as well as structural and statutory components in relation to built and natural environments and the legislative framework controlling land use. Accordingly, planning is closely allied with commerce, government, sociology, communities and the ecology disciplines. The Master of Urban and Regional Planning was the first masters level program in Queensland to be recognised by the Planning Institute of Australia (PIA). It produces professionally competent graduates, familiar with the concepts, ideas and techniques of planning. Courses typically emphasise the acquisition of skills through small scale exercises or practical project work but fits these within a wider intellectual framework of design and public policy. Opportunities are available for a research investigation through an advanced research project; and there is an elective which enables some specialisation.