MSc in Spatial Planning
Oxford Brookes University
Key Information
Campus location
Headington, United Kingdom
Languages
English
Study format
Distance Learning, On-Campus
Duration
12 - 24 months
Pace
Full time, Part time
Tuition fees
GBP 15,900 / per year *
Application deadline
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Earliest start date
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* UK students full-time: £8,900 | International/EU students full-time: £15,900
Scholarships
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Introduction
Designed in collaboration with leading industry professionals, this MSc in Spatial Planning is a varied and interdisciplinary course that prepares you for work as a planner in a wide range of roles.
Accredited by the RTPI, the course centres on the role of spatial planning in tackling the key challenges that are built and natural environments are facing in the coming decades. Throughout the course, you’ll gain the wide-ranging knowledge and skills that you need to succeed as a practitioner in the planning profession.
With a focus on employability and a teaching team that includes experienced practitioners and high-profile researchers, the course curriculum is at the cutting edge of practice. It develops an international perspective on the field of spatial planning and provides you with the flexibility to develop specialist expertise that complements your interests and ambitions.
Our graduates work in a wide range of government roles, both in the UK and abroad, as well as in private sector planning and related fields such as design and property development.
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Admissions
Scholarships and Funding
Curriculum
Study modules
Compulsory modules
Place-Making (30 credits)
This module develops an appreciation of the role of urban design and place-making in the creation and protection of high-quality urban environments. Centring on a ‘live’ site with significant redevelopment potential, the module equips students with the knowledge and skills they need to appraise the character and quality of a place, and to generate imaginative and integrative visions for its future.
Planning for Sustainable Futures: Environment, Health and Society (30 credits)
This module builds an understanding of the concept and principles of sustainability, including the various dimensions of sustainability that are integral to spatial planning and the interconnections between them. It develops skills in the interpretation and practice of sustainable development and understanding of the changing socio-political and environmental context within which spatial plans are generated and implemented.
Planning Frameworks: Law, Policy and Professional Practice (30 credits)
This module familiarises students with the legal, governance and professional contexts in and through which planning systems operate, as well as developing the core knowledge, skills and behaviours that planners need in professional practice. While special reference is made to planning frameworks and approaches in England and the UK, the module has an integral comparative dimension and various other planning systems internationally are considered throughout.
Research Methods (10 credits)
This module provides students with practical knowledge of the key research methods and skills applicable to spatial planning and related fields. The module develops critical awareness and core understanding of different research philosophies, approaches and methods, in order to promote the design and delivery of effective research projects. On completion of the module, students will have developed the knowledge and skills needed to perform effectively as independent researchers, a professional responsible for commissioning research and a critical consumer of research.
Optional modules
Contemporary Approaches to Urban Design (30 credits)
The aim of this module is to provide the theoretical, practical and applied skills to enable the emerging professional to critically assess and develop urban design interventions. Theory and practice merge to become essential tools and perspectives for evaluating urban conditions in relation to placemaking. In this module, students learn to shape theory and practice to develop an urban design framework for critical analysis, evaluation as well as a coherent means for creating design interventions and understanding its impact.
Effective and Proportionate Environmental Impact Assessment (30 credits)
This module explores the systematic process of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) / Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) and the conceptual foundations of effectiveness in order to promote understanding of the development planning and design cycles where EIA / ESIA has the greatest potential to shape sustainable outcomes. The UK and international legislation and different sector guidance are examined to establish key dimensions of best practice. The module stresses the importance of EIA / ESIA scoping and impact mitigation across a range of biophysical and social components of the environment. Risk reduction strategies and the challenge of uncertainty are considered, along with approaches to assess and manage the cumulative effects of development. Reflecting notions of EIA / ESIA as an ongoing management tool, the module considers the role of post-consent monitoring and evaluation. Issues of EIA / ESIA quality and expert competency within the professional practise are examined.
Sustainable Development (30 credits)
The challenge of sustainable development in the current global juncture is to eradicate poverty whilst rebuilding the ecosystems and natural resources that we depend on. This requires a step-change in our approach to urban infrastructure – both the building of new infrastructure and the maintenance and upgrading of existing systems. The aim of this module is to provide participants with the knowledge and skills to respond to this challenge in cities, facilitating 12 infrastructure strategies that integrate concerns for social equity, ecological sustainability and local economic growth. The module draws particular attention to the role of infrastructure in the achievement of sustainable urban development and the opportunities for innovation in infrastructure delivery. A key element to this is the teaching of new ways of thinking about infrastructure delivery that draws on emerging global action norms based on systems thinking.
Urban Regeneration and Historic Conservation (30 credits)
This module locates conservation practice in the context of strategies for physical, cultural and social regeneration. It introduces students to key conservation and regeneration principles, strategies and impacts, exposes them to case studies from around the world and develops their ability to think critically about the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to regeneration and conservation. A major focus is on the delivery of conservation/regeneration projects and the skills and issues involved, including finance and economics, community participation, and the linking of physical with social regeneration. The module brings these aspects together through coursework that involves drawing up a regeneration proposal for a historic site at the local scale.
Note: The Urban Regeneration and Historic Conservation specialisation option will be available from 2022 onwards.
Final project
Dissertation (50 credits)
This module follows on from Research Methods and involves students undertaking and writing up a significant piece of independent research. The topic and focus of the dissertation will have been established through Assignment 2 in the Research Methods module and should be related to the student’s area of specialisation earlier in the programme. The detailed research proposal submitted by students as part of Research Methods provides much of the direction needed to complete the dissertation in terms of research scope and programme. With this as a basis, each student works with an academic supervisor to produce an original piece of work through conducting their own primary research and reporting the findings and implications.
Program Tuition Fee
Career Opportunities
The Spatial Planning programme at Oxford Brookes has been designed in collaboration with professional institutes and industry practitioners to ensure it responds to the needs and expectations of the industry.
Graduates will be well prepared to enter careers as planning practitioners working in public and/or private sector planning practice, as well as in related fields such as property development, design or housing.
The School of the Built Environment has extensive national and international industry links. During your time on the course, you’ll have the chance to make valuable industry connections and take part in a range of professional networking opportunities.