International Planning and Sustainable Development MA

Program Overview

This MSc in Sustainable Development and Planning program from the University of Westminster prepares professionals for careers in urban and regional planning, environmental management, and international development. It offers two Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) accredited pathways: Spatial Planning and Urban Resilience. The program emphasizes sustainability, climate change mitigation, and adaptation planning, and aligns with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

This course is designed for built environment professionals and individuals with a relevant social or physical science background who seek a comprehensive understanding of planning and sustainable development. The program aims to enhance career prospects within their home country or prepare them for international practice. The program delves into the challenges of sustainable development facing cities, regions, and communities in a rapidly urbanizing world, particularly in the context of climate change and other environmental, economic, and social pressures. Based in London, students benefit from the city's internationally recognized experience in spatial planning for sustainable development. The program explores contemporary theories, public policy thinking, and best practices in planning across both developed and developing nations. The University of Westminster is the UK's first Habitat Partner University, collaborating with UN-HABITAT and other institutions to promote socially and environmentally sustainable development. The program aligns with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda.

Outline:

The program offers two Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) accredited pathways:

• Spatial Planning Pathway: Emphasizes urban design and the development planning process.
• Urban Resilience Pathway: Focuses on sustainable development, climate change mitigation, and adaptation planning.

Core Modules (Both Pathways):

• Planning in a Globalising World: Examines the dynamic tensions between economic globalization and local
  ational factors in developed and developing countries.
Analyzes key policy concerns, urban and regional change dynamics, and spatial planning responses across different city and region types. (20 credits)
• Sustainable Neighbourhood Development and Management: Explores participatory planning, housing, and land management for urban regeneration and community development in developed and developing world contexts.
Focuses on policies and methods for sustainable neighborhood planning, including informal and low-income housing in developing world cities. (20 credits)
• Sustainable Cities and Neighbourhoods: Introduces the concepts and ideas of sustainability in urban development.
Covers key debates on planning sustainable cities and neighborhoods, contemporary issues surrounding the theory and practice of sustainable development, and interdisciplinary discussions on the implementation of sustainable development in planning and design. Develops key study and professional skills (critical thinking, site analysis, sustainability appraisal, teamwork, written and visual presentation). (20 credits)
• International Spatial Planning Practice: Provides an international perspective on spatial planning principles and methods, comparing different paradigms in spatial planning and sustainable urban form for new and existing towns and cities and their regions.
Examines the role of spatial planning and land development at the strategic level in mediating between market forces and social needs, and in the spatial coordination of sectoral policies and programs. (20 credits)
• Planning Skills and Research Methods: Introduces students to methods and methodologies specific to urban, spatial, design, and planning research, and professional practice.
Covers planning skills, principles of conducting research, and allows students to develop their own research proposal for their dissertation/major project. Critically examines the generation of knowledge about the built environment and the impacts of planning practice and policy in the context of sustainable development. (20 credits)
• Dissertation or Major Project: Offers the opportunity to research a spatial planning or related topic in-depth through primary or desk-based research.
The dissertation is 12-15,000 words in length. Students can also undertake a Major Project, producing a written report of similar length or a report combining planning or design proposals with a written analytical report. (20 credits)
• International Planning Field Trip: Introduces students to research methods and methodologies specific to urban and spatial research, design, and planning.
Explores the theory and practice of developing a research framework with a particular emphasis on methods, methodologies, and theoretical frameworks used within the built environment professions. (No credits)

Core Module for Spatial Planning Pathway:

• Urban Form and Growth: Focuses on the physical and spatial form of cities at the urban design scale, exploring the basic fabric of urban form (buildings, streets, spaces), the forces that shape them, global variations, regulatory contexts, and how they provide a physical environment for activities and livelihoods.
Students learn key theoretical approaches to urban morphology, tissue studies, typo-morphological investigations, spatial development patterns, historic development, graphic methods, spatial analysis, and various forms and manifestations of the physical built environment of cities. (20 credits)

Core Module for Urban Resilience Pathway:

• Planning for Urban Risk and Resilience: Covers spatial planning for risk management, including reducing vulnerability and building urban resilience as it relates to the built environment, urban governance, and long-term climate change and development needs.
Integrates sustainable development and climate change mitigation and adaptation concerns with disaster planning and urban risk management. (20 credits)

Option Modules:

• Environmental Policy, Assessment and Climate Change: Provides background on environmental policy and climate change, setting out the theoretical framework, international context for sustainable development, energy efficiency, and climate change.
Explores implications for the built environment in a range of development contexts, analyzes key policy concerns, and examines planning and design responses across different institutional and cultural contexts. Reviews techniques for assessing the impacts of development and examines the role of effective environmental strategies and policies in planning and related fields to achieve sustainable development. (20 credits)
• Place and Experience in Design for Urban Spaces: A project-based module that examines the form, use, and experience of public space, exploring notions of perception, identity, diversity, place, placemaking, and place shaping.
Projects are used to critically assess the character of urban spaces and propose responsive design interventions. (20 credits)
• Emerging Landscapes and Urban Ecologies: A theory and case study-based module that critically examines the role and definition of nature in urban environments.
It looks at the role of nature, ecology, and landscape as powerful paradigms in cities in the late 20th/early 21st century. Socioenvironmental sustainability, urban ecology, adaptive reuse, and the re-emergence of natural landscape features as part of a city's active green infrastructure are addressed and discussed through relevant literature. International case studies are explored in the context of a growing awareness of the importance of city ecologies for health and wellbeing, sustainability, and the future design of cities. (20 credits)
• Urban Design Project: A design-based module enabling students to combine learning from other modules and evolve strategic concepts into detailed design positions.
(20 credits)
• Housing and Urban Regeneration: Covers housing and economic development, debates about housing supply, the role of public policy (including planning) in promoting housing development, the development of affordable housing, concentrations of social deprivation and negative neighborhood effects, strategies for neighborhood regeneration, governance and capacity building, tackling worklessness, and policy evaluation.
(20 credits)
• Communities Towards Sustainability – Public Engagement: Addresses key issues around public engagement and themes of sustainability applied to the local scale, looking at challenges addressed by communities and grassroots from an interdisciplinary perspective.
Participants gain practical skills through observation and participation in real-life projects, working within an interdisciplinary team composed of speakers from different fields and professional horizons, local authorities, and community groups. They develop a reflective approach on ways to serve the community and enhance social capital, benefiting from international exposure through an exchange workshop with a European university. Students gain theoretical knowledge on key ideas related to sustainability, community, participation, social capital, governance, inequalities issues, and cultural diversity attached to place-making processes. They also develop analytical skills on key historical and contemporary debates about community engagement, community diversity through London's key challenges for sustainability, and by learning from international cases. (20 credits)
• Conservation and Heritage: Introduces the historic urban landscapes that form an important part of most towns and cities worldwide.
Theory and conservation practice are evaluated in a legislative and case law context. (20 credits) Supported by a series of lectures, the module focuses on student-led projects developing a critical understanding of how software can enhance practice rather than developing advanced software skills. (20 credits)
• Destination Development – Case Study Perspectives: Focuses on destinations and evaluates and debates destination development strategies.
It considers alternative destination management structures and assesses the role of destination planning in limiting the negative impacts of tourism and ensuring competitiveness. The module follows a case study approach with students assessing destination responses to different scenarios and challenges. Both UK and overseas destinations are studied, ranging across resort, urban, and rural settings. (20 credits)
• Land Use, Planning and Transport: Explores changes in land use in relation to changes in city form and function.
It focuses on how the changing planning system (including specific funding systems and processes, and the broader planning framework) shapes transport systems and their sustainability. Different views on transport and land use planning are considered, including local authority and developer perspectives. The module incorporates discussion of transport modeling and forecasting, and an introduction to relevant software as it is used within planning and policy-making. The module considers social and environmental trends and constraints as they affect planning for future transport systems. (20 credits)
• Traffic and Streets: Focuses on traffic and streets, where traffic refers to a range of urban transport modes.
It covers movement and place functions in urban contexts, including tensions within and between each. Students analyze approaches to evaluating urban street environments, particularly focused on walking and cycling. This incorporates comparisons of methodological approaches used within different streetscape contexts and within different countries. (20 credits)

Assessment:

The program utilizes a variety of assessment methods, including:

• Practical: Presentations, podcasts, blogs
• Coursework: Essays, in-class tests, portfolios, dissertation

Teaching:

• Teaching Methods: Lectures, seminars, workshops, problem-based and blended learning, and practical application where appropriate.
• Faculty: Academics and practitioners with expertise in the field, involved in publication, research, and consultancy for various organizations in the UK and internationally.

Careers:

Graduates from the program can pursue roles such as:

• Urban and regional planner
• Environmental planner
• International development expert
• International urban planner and designer
• Sustainable development specialist
Graduates have found employment at organizations including:
• AECOM
• Atkins Global
• Corporation of London
• IMC Worldwide
• IPE Triple Line
• World Bank

Other:

• The program recognizes the historical colonial roots of the climate crisis and the underlying issues of climate justice between Global North and Global South and East countries.
• The program has close links with professional practice and members of the teaching team are active in professional associations.
• The program has close links with international organizations such as UN-HABITAT, UNHCR, and the World Bank.
• The program has ongoing connections with a range of large consultancies operating in planning, sustainability, and international development, as well as local authorities in the UK.
• The program offers a Westminster Employability Award, which allows students to formally document and demonstrate their personal and professional development activities and achievements.
• The program has a global alumni network.
• The program offers an international planning field trip.
• The program is accredited by the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI).

This opportunity is available if you have a personal tuition fee liability of £2,000 or more and if you are self-funded or funded by the Student Loans Company.