Course Outline
The MA in Environmental and Spatial Planning is aimed primarily at graduates from other related disciplines who wish to become accredited town planners. The course is designed as a fast track to professional qualification and reflects the growth in demand for qualified personnel in this area, and the need for an educational course that fulfils the needs of the profession. The property and construction industry and its related professions are constantly evolving and consequently offer a diverse range of career prospects and challenges.
There are abundant opportunities for a rewarding career in a profession where people can make a real difference to the world in which they live. The programme is rigorous, intensive but coherent, aimed at producing capable, creative, reflective and critical practitioners. This course is fully recognised and accredited by the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI). The course adopts a knowledge-centric approach to thinking, acting and social process across the broad spread of spatial planning. This lively and challenging approach differs from conventional approaches, based on detailed technical knowledge, by developing a capability to work with incomplete knowledge. Students are encouraged to develop their own approaches to problems rather than being presented with standard solutions.
This intensive programme has been developed to respond to the rapidly changing problems and opportunities within planning. Our approach is fully supported through the government’s Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) and the professional body, the RTPI. The course structure enables you to develop subject knowledge and transferable skills in sustainable planning at the local level, and to link theory and practice through critical reflection. The course provides students with the knowledge, competences and values needed to become part of this profession.
The overseas field trip to Freiburg and Berlin (Germany) has been a popular part of the course since 2006. The field trip includes walking tours, speakers, and visits specifically designed to be of relevance to the contemporary nature of the course and covers topic areas such as sustainability, climate change, renewable energy etc. Student feedback suggests that each cohort has a positive experience both educationally and socially.
The Strategy into Practice module has been praised for its problem-based approach to learning. Student-led workshops are backed up by tutorial support, with aspiring planners working closely with potential property developers (and in future those on other courses) which leads to genuinely multi-professional learning environments in the context of the built environment.
The Research Project 60-credit module is an interesting innovation which replaced the more traditional dissertation. Students produce potentially publishable articles in the style of a journal paper.
| Postgraduate Certificate |
Postgraduate Diploma |
Master’s |
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Spirit and Purpose Planning |
Strategy in Practice |
Research Project |
| Policies and Plans |
Development Processes and Place Making |
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| Development Management |
Law and Environment Governance |
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| Planning Futures |
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Example of Module Content: Spirit and Purpose of Planning
This module will contribute to your overall understanding of the principles of spatial planning. As such it will contribute toward the formation of professional ethics and values and contribute to your lifelong appreciation of how the core values of planning can be applied in changed circumstances.
Your Career
Career Prospects
This course offers accreditation by the RTPI and most graduates will enter into a planning/spatial planning career. Graduates of this course have a high employability record. Nearly 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 (individual firm), commercial organisations, Local Authority or central Government. The Birmingham School of the Built Environment has excellent links with the profession at both a local and national level with a number of the teaching staff still remaining active in this area. The MA Environmental and Spatial Planning will also stretch your transferable skills in areas such as research, time management and reasoned argument.
Further Study Options
The University has a range of research (MPhil and PhD) postgraduate programmes.
Details can be found on the courses section of the website.