The Department of Urban and Rural Planning of Southwest Jiaotong University keeps in line with the university's orientation as a first-class comprehensive research university with distinctive transportation characteristics”. The department is committed to offering a national-level compound innovative and practical first-class major. Based on the “trinity” discipline platform of Architecture, Urban and Rural Planning, and Landscape Architecture, relying on many advantageous disciplines of the university such as Traffic and Transportation Engineering, Public Administration, Geosciences and Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering, the department gives full play to scientific fields such as urban and rural transportation, regional culture, and urban-rural ecology to carry out teaching and scientific research. It mainly undertakes the teaching work of this discipline and conducts research on urban and rural planning and design, urban and rural planning management, urban and rural spatial governance, urban and rural transportation planning, urban and rural ecological development, etc.
The major of Urban and Rural Planning in Southwest Jiaotong University is a comprehensive subject that involves urban and rural planning and management, resource allocation, and space governance. This major brings together the advantages of the world’s leading transportation discipline of the university, regional research characteristics, and scientific research accumulation in urban and rural planning, and has made important contributions to the development of urban and rural economy and society, the training of professional talents, and the construction of built environment in urban and rural areas, especially in West China.
Southwest Jiaotong University is one of the earliest universities in China that introduced modern urban and rural planning courses. As early as in the 1920s and 1930s, Tangshan School of Jiaotong University (the predecessor of Southwest Jiaotong University) set up related courses such as planning and design, planning administration and management, planning technology and initiated the early teaching of urban planning by Professor T.S.Chu.
In 1997, the Urban Planning major of Southwest Jiaotong University was officially open to students for a study duration of 5 years. In 2003, the Urban Planning and Design Master degree section was launched. In 2006, the urban planning major passed the national undergraduate education assessment. In 2010, it passed the undergraduate education reassessment with an “excellence” grade. In 2012, it was approved for the Pilot Training of Outstanding Engineers by Sichuan Province, In 2012, the major's name was changed to “Urban and Rural Planning” for the consistent use of the word because “Urban and Rural Planning” has been elected as a first-level discipline. In 2014, it passed the assessment of graduate education of urban and rural planning. In 2016, it passed the undergraduate and master's education reassessment with an “excellence” grade again.
The Department of Urban and Rural Planning lays stress on the development of interdisciplinary research and emphasizes on forming interdisciplinary teams to carry out scientific research. Now, it has four research teams on the following directions: Urban Land Use and Transportation Planning, Urban and Rural Ecology and Technology Science, Regional Planning and Urban and Rural History and Culture, and Theory and Method of Urban and Rural Planning and Design. It has the following advantages: (1) Outstanding Advantages in the Transportation Field. It has built an interdisciplinary academic highland of "Transportation Architecture and Planning" and won 10 general programs from the National Natural Science Foundation of China and more than 20 provincial and ministerial projects. (2) Obvious Open School Characteristics. It explores an open school operation mode that combines society, human culture, art and planning education, international exchanges, and western regional culture. (3) Strong Regional Influence. It creates a variety of joint teaching methods, such as school-enterprise, inter-school, and interdisciplinary cooperation, which effectively improves students' practical and social adaptability. The department has rich experience in post-disaster reconstruction and supporting the development of professional planning in ethnic minority areas.
