planning built and natural environments
TRANSCRIPT
MA Planning Built and Natural EnvironmentsA Course Overview
Key Facts
If you have an undergraduate degree in a subject not necessarily related to environmental and spatial planning, this course allows you to adapt your career path in order to enter this exciting and dynamic profession.
The course is designed as a fast track to a professional qualification and reflects the growing demand for qualified personnel in this area.
The course is fully accredited by the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI). Successful completion of this course will lead to Professional Membership after the Assessment of Professional Competence (APC).
Why Choose Us?
The programme is accredited by the Royal Town Planning Institute; the professional body for planners in the UK, and with a wide international reputation.
The programme has a spatial planning core from which two specialist pathways can be followed allowing RTPI specialisation in Environment (MA) or Law (LLM). These give our planning course a distinctive identity within what are growing job market areas in the planning profession.
The programme addresses planning issues in the UK and EU (including field trips) in both built and natural environment domains and the linkages between them.
A dedicated course team supports a positive student learning experience through innovative teaching and learning and research informed teaching with access to a strong network of practitioners and decisions makers.
The programme combines economic, social and environmental perspectives within a more holistic framework for identifying, designing, delivering and evaluating effective planning responses.
Contact the Course Leader: Professor Alister Scott [email protected]
Course Overview
The programme is interdisciplinary, combining economic, social and environmental perspectives to address spatial planning challenges and opportunities in a more joined-up manner. Thus the programme focuses on both built and natural environment issues and the linkages and dependencies between them.
Following a grounding in core spatial
planning principles students can follow specialist pathways in planning law and environmental planning reflecting staff teaching and research strengths. Thus this course equips students with the knowledge, skills and tools to start fitting the disparate pieces of the built and natural environment jigsaw together in order to improve the ways in which we plan; develop policy and make decisions.
Course Structure1
Spatial Planning Core 90 CreditsGovernance of the Built &
Natural Environment15 Credits
Managerial Skills15 Credits
Learning Log0 Credits
Foundations of Planning30 Credits
Planners’ Toolkit30 Credits
MA Environmental Planning Pathway 90 Credits
1 New Course Structure Subject to Accreditation in Spring 2015
Planning and Placemaking in the EU 15 Credits
Agents of Environmental Planning 15 Credits
Environmental Planning Dissertation 60 Credits
LLM Planning Law Pathway 90 Credits
Planning Law in Practice 15 Credits
Human Rights and the Environment 15 Credits
Planning Law Dissertation 60 Credits
The course is vocational and applied within a robust academic framework. This provides you with future-proofed professional and practical skills required by the planning profession which are underpinned by intellectual, transferable and personal skills. These are developed and enhanced through the modules that comprise the course supported by staff tutors.
Foundations of Planning: The principles of planning and their impact on the evolution of governance frameworks. The key features of the natural, economic, political and social dimensions of planning and how they inform planning policy and decision making processes and governance frameworks.
Planners Toolkit: The principal planning tools (regulatory, incentive, valuation, scenarios and participative) to address spatial planning challenges across the built and natural environment.
Governance of Built and Natural Environments; The development and application of environmental and planning legislation and policy including awareness of potential developments in legislation.
Managerial Skills: Understanding and applying a range of managerial processes, approaches and (hard and soft) skills within ethical frameworks that enable positive planning outcomes.
Human Rights and the Environment: Examining the relationship between human rights and the rights of the environment. What conflicts exist between individual human rights and the wider public interest in a healthy environment?
Agents of Environmental Planning: The social and economic motivations and implications of environmental decision-making focussing on detailed case studies. The delivery of this module involves Natural England which is a unique feature providing a first-hand government advisory perspective.
Planning and Placemaking in the EU: Understanding place making in a variety of EU contexts and identifying and applying core principles to English planning.
Planning Law in Practice : Responding to contemporary legal issues and challenges in planning through detailed case analyses and judgements.
Learning Log: Developing core skills of a reflective planning practitioner with personal development plans incorporating competencies for RTPI accreditation and career planning. This includes a four day EU field visit.
AssessmentAssessment methods are diverse, industry-relevant and tailored to the learning outcomes of each module. These include individual reports, fieldwork, essays, individual and team presentations, portfolio work, role play, seen and unseen exams and a major individual submission (research report/paper). Peer and self-assessment also feature.
Mode of StudyFull Time students study two days per week over one academic year from September.Part Time students study one day per week over two academic years.
Entry Requirements Shortlisted for RTPI Excellence in Planning Awards 2014
Normally a good honours degree. For the Planning Law pathway, a prior knowledge of law is advisable.
EmployabilityNearly all our graduates go into employment soon after completion of the course with those who are already in employment seeking to advance their careers following the achievement of the MA. Planning-related jobs can be both well paid and challenging. You could be employed in professional practice (e.g. in an individual firm of planning consultants), commercial organisations (e.g. house builders), local authorities or central government.
For more information about the programme or to discuss your application, please contact [email protected]