Fees and funding

Fees

For entry in the academic year beginning September 2027, the tuition fees are as follows:

  • MSc (full-time)
    UK students (per annum): £16,000
    International, including EU, students (per annum): £33,100

The fees quoted above are fully inclusive of tuition, administration and computational costs.

Fees for entry are subject to yearly review. The University reserves the right to increase your tuition fee by up to 7% each year for courses lasting more than one year, including to reflect rising costs associated with delivering our educational and wider student experience. Postgraduate fees information .

Always contact the admissions team if you are unsure which fee applies to your qualification award and method of attendance.

International student CAS deposit

Self-funded international applicants are required to pay a deposit of £2500 towards their tuition fees before a confirmation of acceptance for studies (CAS) is issued. Some applicants will be required to pay a higher deposit. More information on tuition fee deposits .

Policy on additional costs

All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. Any unavoidable additional compulsory costs totalling more than 1% of the annual home undergraduate fee per annum, regardless of whether the programme in question is undergraduate or postgraduate taught, will be made clear to you at the point of application. Further information can be found in the University's Policy on additional costs incurred by students on undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes (PDF document, 91KB).

Scholarships/sponsorships

We know that student finance can be complicated. The links below provide further information to help guide you.

Course unit details:
Global Urban Futures

Course unit fact file
Unit code URBN70032
Credit rating 15
Unit level FHEQ level 7 – master's degree or fourth year of an integrated master's degree
Teaching period(s) Semester 2
Offered by Geography
Available as a free choice unit? No

Overview

How do we imagine urban futures in the face of mounting social, economic and environmental challenges? What do we do to change current trajectories of development associated with continued and amplified marginalisation, exploitation and destruction? How can we intervene to discontinue the incessant reproduction of inequalities across the global urban and interlinked spatial scales?

This course unit will introduce students to current approaches to the future of cities, including theoretical, technology, policy and artistic research. It will be working with a range of researchers, activists and practitioners around the world who are at the heart of imagining and changing urban futures within their specific context. The focus will be on understanding systems and systems thinking, co-dependencies (humans, more-than/non-humans, etc.) uncertainty and likely trajectories of change.

Aims

The unit aims to:

  • provide an overview of current challenges to urban sustainability in different geographical, cultural and political contexts around the world
  • offer a diverse portfolio of options and tools to think about and intervene in the future of cities, ranging from research activism to the use of innovative or yet-to-be-invented technology
  • prepare students for transdisciplinary collaboration in research and practice.

Learning outcomes

Students should/will be able to:

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching and learning will take place through a mix of lectures, student-led seminars and practical exercises.

Lectures will be delivered by the course convener (in person) and guest speakers (in person and online).

Guest speakers will be participating in student-led seminars.

Practical exercises will allow students to apply acquired knowledge (theory, methods) in a real world context (Manchester) and invite them to think through and evaluate applicability in urban contexts elsewhere.

Students will learn in groups and individually.

Knowledge and understanding

  • Identify and make use of a range of disciplinary approaches to the study of cities as well as typical methods and tools
  • Describe and evaluate the relationship between people and the built and natural environment at the urban scale

Intellectual skills

  • Find, evaluate, synthesise and use information from a variety of sources
  • Analyse and evaluate urban conditions using transdisciplinary methods and tools

Practical skills

  • Identify, evidence and communicate their own role as urban scholars and practitioners
  • Apply theories, approaches, methods and tools in their professional practice
  • Converse and collaborate with future partners from different disciplinary and/or professional backgrounds
  • Express ideas effectively and communicate information appropriately and accurately to academic and non-academic audiences using a range of media

Transferable skills and personal qualities

  • Apply skills of critical analysis to real world situations within a defined range of contexts
  • Recognise, respect and integrate different perspectives when working as part of a team and/or in collaboration with others
  • Articulate an awareness of the social and community contexts of suggested interventions

Assessment methods

Method Weight
Written assignment (inc essay) 30%
Portfolio 70%

Feedback methods

  • Verbal feedback from convener following in-class presentations (formative)
  • Summative, via the VLE15 days after submission

Study hours

Scheduled activity hours
Fieldwork 16
Lectures 24
Independent study hours
Independent study 110

Teaching staff

Staff member Role
Deljana Iossifova Unit coordinator

Return to course details

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