In order to determine the specific purpose and mission of the doctoral course in urban planning, it is necessary to have a brief look at the existential philosophy of urban planning and its nature in general. Since the beginning of the last century, the formation of the profession and field of urban planning has always been accompanied by many discussions and challenges. One of the main discussions has been related to the proper nature of education in its three stages. Therefore, in order to determine the optimal form of urban planning education at the doctoral level, it is necessary first of all to clarify the professional role of the urban planner on the one hand and the academic role on the other hand. Undoubtedly, the nature of these two determining roles is a need that the professional and academic community has, and the educational program of the Ph.D. in urban planning must respond to them satisfactorily.

A. Existential philosophy of urbanism

Despite some ambiguities that exist almost everywhere in the world about the nature and content of urban planning, and certainly our country is not an exception in this regard, due to the role that urban planning has in creating a suitable platform for the lives of citizens, its importance and credibility is increasing day by day. It is added as an active and effective field and profession. Although it cannot be said with certainty that such a platform directly and based on an algebraic relationship affects social, cultural, behavioral characteristics, etc., but in any case, it can play an effective and decisive role in guiding and forming a desirable society. Shaping and organizing such a platform in a way that realizes the desired goals and values ​​is the main reason for the emergence of the field of urban planning.

b. The nature of science, art and humanities urbanization

The growth of urbanism and urbanization during the last century all over the world and the emergence of various urban issues and problems have led to the creation of excellent educational and research courses on urban planning in universities around the world. Unprecedented development of cities and urbanization, advances in technology, especially communication and information technologies, developments related to means of transportation and quantitative and qualitative changes in land use, as well as quantitative and qualitative changes in the urban population and their diverse and numerous demands, and finally a major and fundamental change in Decision-making mechanisms in urban communities have caused the increasing complexity of urban planning issues. This once again emphasizes the interdisciplinary nature of urban planning more clearly and decisively than before. In such a way that the content and consequently the urban planning procedures are introduced not only as a scientific or artistic field, but also as a scientific, artistic and human field that has the characteristics and at the same time the complexities of related fields and therefore the use of theories, methods and techniques related to all its constituent fields is inevitable. This makes urban planning a very special and almost unique field and profession.

c. Global, national and local

The aforementioned characteristics along with various changes and developments in recent decades (globalization process) indicate the concept that the idea of ​​a global village is being realized, whether we like it or not. Therefore, the nature of urban planning and global developments and local value systems require that all three aforementioned levels be taken into consideration in urban planning education at all levels, especially at the doctoral level. Undoubtedly, a scholar of urban planning will not be able to carry out his educational, research and professional activities properly without knowing about global developments, especially the experiences and achievements of other societies in the field of solving related problems. Obviously, this should not be taken in the sense that the city planner will import the problems from abroad and necessarily bring the relevant solutions from abroad along with them, and therefore, solutions will be presented that have no connection and tradition with the internal and local conditions of our society.

d. Division of work in three sections

Although from the academic point of view, bachelor's, master's and doctorate courses are separated from each other in almost all prestigious universities of the world and a specific goal and mission is considered for each, but the fact is that these three courses are strongly dependent on each other and The realization of the desired goals at the higher level depends and depends on the realization of the corresponding goals at the lower level. This is especially true for the relationship between the master's degree and the doctorate in urban planning. Considering that the goal of the master's course is to train professionals, and the goal of the doctorate course, as the highest level of education in the field, is to train specialists who produce knowledge and expand its boundaries, and through research and transferring knowledge to the profession, to improve and improve the quality. environment, so it is necessary and inevitable to pay attention to the relationship between the profession and the field of urban planning.

Another important point that should be noted in connection with the three above-mentioned stages in urban planning is that the bachelor's education course is general, integrated and without division into specialized sub-sets, but in the master's degree, urban planning is divided into sub-sets such as urban planning, urban design And... it is divided. But in the doctoral level, such a distinction has not been made and the title of the course in its general framework is called "Urbanization". In this course, the student's favorite concepts and his specialized field are followed during the doctoral dissertation, which shows the importance of the research part of the doctoral course.