Urban Development Planning MSc

UCL’s Urban Development Planning MSc equips urban practitioners with the clarity and political capacity to tackle multi-dimensional inequalities and promote more just urban futures for all city dwellers. The Urban Development Planning MSc nurtures urban practitioners with the capacity to catalyse and support collective interventions towards more equitable urban futures. Grounded in longstanding partnerships with civil society networks, academic institutions, local and regional government agencies and global organisations (such as UN Habitat), our programme critically engages a southern planning lens to reclaim the transformative potential of planning. We operate from the standpoint that reclaiming this potential is crucial for cities and city dwellers to capture the opportunities of urban transformations in ways that meet the multiple and overlapping threats posed by climate breakdown, deepening socio-economic inequalities, democratic disengagement, conflict, and violent displacements. This degree is designed to equip a new generation of urban development practitioners with analytical and practical tools that will enable them to respond strategically to these overlapping challenges within a framework of socio-spatial-environmental justice. The Urban Development Planning MSc is designed for recent graduates, current professionals and career changers from diverse disciplinary, cultural and geographic backgrounds. It is particularly suited to those interested in rethinking the role of urban planning and the responsibilities of urban planners in addressing today’s development challenges. Blending theory and practice, the course equips students with the analytical and practical tools required to catalyse and support more socially, spatially and environmentally just urban development trajectories. This programme is also available on a modular (flexible) basis, with a duration of 5 calendar years.

The normal minimum qualifications are a second-class Bachelor's degree from a UK university or an overseas qualification of an equivalent standard. A minimum of six months work experience is also recommended.Applicants who do not meet the minimum academic requirements may, in exceptional cases, be admitted to the programme if they are able to demonstrate considerable senior-level professional experience in planning or a related field and an ability to engage academically with the subject matter.