MPlan(UG) Urban Studies and Planning

The MPlan is a professionally-accredited four-year integrated masters and undergraduate degree that gives you the skills, knowledge and qualification to enter planning and related professions.

Emphasis is placed on combining core knowledge and skills with an intellectual approach spanning design, climate change, economics and social issues to enable you to anticipate and shape the future. The course includes training in IT skills such as Geographical Information Systems and design software.

The first year covers core ideas that influence planning and urban development and the skills planners need, including urban design and climate change. Your first year typically includes a field trip, where you will learn how to read space and place, and begin to think critically about how different urban environments might be experienced.

In your second year you'll develop your understanding of concepts and practices in urbanism, spatial change and planning. This year typically includes a core field trip, which provides hands-on experience of planning issues. You can also apply to spend this year at one of our international partner universities.

Before you begin your third year, you'll have a period of work experience in a local planning office or private sector planning consultancy, looking at how plans are made. All core field trips are funded by the department.

The third and fourth years continue to develop core knowledge and skills with the opportunity to develop specialist interests through the dissertation and optional modules. It's possible to spend the second half of the fourth year studying abroad in Europe.

Accredited by the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) for the purpose of fully meeting the educational requirements for Chartered Membership and by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). Our housing modules are also accredited by the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH), making the MPlan the only course of its kind in the UK to offer triple professional accreditation.