Course description

MSc Urban Design and International Planning provides a specialist understanding of the relationship between urban design and planning by focusing on issues that are of international significance.

It will provide you with the core knowledge and competencies needed to become a chartered planner and specialise in urban design and international planning.

The course is fully accredited by the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) and is an Educational Member of the Urban Design Group as part of the Recognised Practitioner in Urban Design pathway.

Aims

Allow you to tailor the course to your professional interests by choosing from numerous optional course units.

Provide you with the practical skills to deliver a comprehensive urban design proposal.

Provide you with an international perspective on overseas fieldwork.

Special features

Benefit from small-group teaching, close staff-student relationships, and guided one-to-one supervision.

Develop practical skills in project studios with drawing facilities, model-making workshops, and specialist design and spatial analysis software.

Enjoy fieldwork opportunities in the UK and abroad, exploring real-life issues on one-day trips, site visits, and overseas residential visits to locations including Manchester, London, Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels, Toronto, Amsterdam, Belfast and Dublin.

Have the flexibility to mix discipline units or specialise, and choose from a wide range of optional course units.

Study in Manchester, a city where planning has been taught for more than 50 years, and urban development and environmental impacts are on your doorstep.

Teaching and learning

A number of professional practitioners are engaged in teaching on this course, making for a theoretically informed, practice-orientated approach to teaching and learning.

An overseas field visit is an optional part of the course, if students choose to undertake the relevant optional course unit (International Planning (Field Visit)). Recent locations have included Barcelona, Amsterdam, Belfast, Dublin and Toronto.

Fieldwork may be scheduled at any point during the course, and this may include time during University vacations. Successful applicants are expected to be available to attend.

Countries to be visited may change their immigration and visa regulations at short notice. The School cannot guarantee that where visas are required for the field course, they will be granted. The School will ensure that, in the unlikely event that a visa is refused, affected students are not academically disadvantaged.

Part-time students complete the full-time programme over 27 months. There are no evening or weekend course units available on the part-time programme, therefore if you are considering taking a programme on a part-time basis, you should discuss the requirements with the Programme Director and seek approval from your employer to have the relevant time off. Timetabling information is normally available from late August from the Programme Administrator and you will have the opportunity to discuss course unit choices during induction week with the Programme Director.

Coursework and assessment

Assessment methods are largely individual-based, but may also involve some elements of group work and submission.

You are continually assessed via a range of methods including essays, portfolios, presentations, and topic papers.

You will be required to submit a dissertation of approximately 15,000 words that can focus on crucial planning debates in an international context, urban design debates, or a combination. Alternatively, you may submit a design study supported by a report of 10,000 words.