Urban and Regional Planning MSc/Diploma

The Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) has created a new bursary for £1,000 for places on accredited University Planning Masters programmes. Get full details of the application criteria.

Planning guides the future development and use of land. It is about where development should happen, where it should not and how it affects the quality of our surroundings. Urban and regional planning strives to design and deliver equitable, inclusive and sustainable communities where people can live, work and enjoy their leisure time. This involves promoting and facilitating development while
protecting and enhancing the natural and built environment.

Our Urban and Regional Planning degree is designed to equip you with the knowledge and practical skills needed to work as a professional planner. You will develop the ability to ask the right questions and find creative solutions to the challenges facing communities and the built environment.

This programme equips you to work as a professional planner and our strong links to practitioners and employers are a vital part of developing the knowledge and skills needed. Students have the opportunity to engage with industry in teaching and on research and coursework projects.

Our graduates have an excellent record of finding employment in planning – in a variety of jobs and with a variety of employers – in local government, central government, environmental and development agencies and private sector consultants and developers.

This programme can be studied This programme can be studied full-time, part-time or via Independent Distance Learning (IDL), ideal for those in employment or with other commitments, providing flexible study options that fit around work or family.

*An IDL programme - whether at PgDip or MSc level - can be completed in a minimum of 2 years. On average, our PgDip programmes studied via IDL are completed in 2-3 years, while MSc programmes are completed in 2.5-7 years. Most students intend to complete their studies via IDL within 2-3 years.

The Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Building Design has excellent industry links. Staff within the Institute are actively engaged in a variety of research projects relating to building design, specification, management and operation.

This programme is delivered by the Royal Academy of Engineering Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Building Design. This is one of four such Centres established at UK universities that jointly form a national network to demonstrate and exchange best practice in teaching and research for the sustainable built environment.

The MSc gives full exemption from all the educational requirements of the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI).