On nearly the same moment as the opening of STT Bandung (Sekolah Tinggi Teknik/Higher School of Engineering) in Yogyakarta, a Private Higher Education School was created in Yogyakarta, which was called Balai Perguruan Tinggi Swasta/Private Higher Education Hall (BPT) Gadjah Mada. The school was officially opened in March 1946 and was located at the Sitihinggil and the Pagelaran of the Yogyakarta Kraton. These two locations were used under the support and permission of His Highness Sultan Hamengku Buwono IX. Unfortunately on 19 December 1948, when the Dutch military attacked Yogyakarta which at that time was the capital city of the Indonesian Republic, both STT and BPT Swasta Gadjah Mada were forced to close. Exactly one year after it was closed, on 19 December 1949, STT was re-opened with a new status: as a faculty within the University of Gadjah Mada Yogyakarta.
Universitas Gadjah Mada was created by the merger of the BPT and STT, and its official establishment date was 19 December 1949. At that time the Indonesian Republic capital was moved to Jakarta which created a shortage of teaching staff at the Engineering Faculty. This shortage forced the closure of two programs, Mechanical and Electrical Engineering programs, which left only two programs in operation, Civil Engineering and Chemical Engineering. Foreign donors in the years 1955 to 1966 helped the Faculty very much, especially from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) which started in 1957. With the help of UCLA which included teaching assistance, books, and scholarships for teaching staff which was organized in 4 periods until 1964, the faculty was able to open a new program, Architectural Engineering (1962 – present).
In the beginning of the establishment, it only consisted of one study program, which is a Bachelor Degree in Architecture. Furthermore, to respond the need for professional urban and regional planners, especially for government institutions, in 1994 Postgraduate Program in Urban and Regional Planning was opened. Later on, the growing need for urban and regional planners who have competence in technical matters stimulate the idea to open an undergraduate program in urban and regional planning, and since 2003 Urban and Regional Planning Study Program (URP-SP) was officially opened under the Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM).