MSc Global Urban Development and Planning

Fees for entry in 2027 have not yet been set. For reference, the fees for the academic year beginning September 2026 were as follows:

• MSc (full-time)
  UK students (per annum): £12,600
  International, including EU, students (per annum): £30,500

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 .

An overseas field visit is an optional part of the course.

Please note there is a student contribution towards the cost of the trip depending on the location.

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).

• Information on university funding, loans, and scholarships are available on the master’s student funding page .

• Funding for EU and international students is on our country-specific pages .

Evidence-based policy-making is central to contemporary spatial and policy analysis. The consolidation of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) as widely used tools for data management and advanced analysis via intensive use of data and methods to process and map this data have changed the focus of traditional spatial analysis towards a fully fledge use of digital tools.

Spatial and policy analysis knowledge and methods, supported by digital tools, is a central set of knowledge and skills for professionals in urban planning and policy related areas.

Acknowledging the ongoing significant shift in the UK and worldwide urban agendas towards a comprehensive digital approach to planning and policy design and monitoring, the course addresses basic and complex issues and delivers an essential toolkit for graduates to be effective professionals in providing robust, intelligible and accessible evidence for all domains of spatial and policy analysis.

The unit aims to:

To enhance the understanding of trends, relationships and spatial patterns of development and to in order to provide a context for policy-making; 
To encourage students think critically about (spatial) data, different forms of analysis, and presentation techniques with regard to data and analytical findings. 
To present various methodologies of spatial analysis used to carry out spatial policy monitoring and evaluation to assess the outputs and outcomes of policy action; 
To make use of software, coding, cutting-edge AI, and information technology to answer spatial and policy questions and present analytical findings.

At the end of this unit, students should:

Harris R. Quantitative Geography: The Basics. Sage Publications; 2016.

Wong C. Indicators for Urban and Regional Planning: The Interplay of Policy and Methods. Vol The RTPI library series. Routledge; 2006.

E. Innes J, Booher DE. Indicators for Sustainable Communities: A Strategy Building on Complexity Theory and Distributed Intelligence. Planning Theory & Practice. 2000;1(2):173-186. doi:10.1080/14649350020008378

Kirk A. Data Visualisation: a Handbook for Data Driven Design. SAGE; 2016.

The course will have synchronous lectures, some asynchronous lectures, some support readings and many activities that will be subsequently discussed in in-class synchronous discussion sessions.

This module will be delivered through a combination of teaching methods with a strong emphasis on the importance of hands-on experience and small group learning.

The teaching will be largely based on introductory lectures and practical workshops that will be taken by students independently, with a follow-up QA session to consolidate that knowledge.

Short lectures will be used to introduce the concepts and principles that underpin each 
method and technique. This will be complemented by workshops to provide students with the first-hand experience of carrying out data collection and analysis tasks.

There will be a strong connection between the different components taught in the module and assessments. These cover basic to advanced spatial and policy analysis making use of the range of methods, techniques and tools future graduates will apply in their practice. These will involve the cumulative collection, analysis and presentation of data and findings throughout the course.

Assignments are designed to be approached with a critical perspective while applying the methods, techniques and tools for spatial and policy analysis. Both assignments intrinsically deliver on all components of the assignments without creating overassessment.
 

Develop a critical knowledge of the range of theories,  techniques and methods used to analyse, monitor and evaluate spatial policy issues and actions;
Providing students with the knowledge and skills needed to identify, compare and apply these techniques and methods in theory and practice;
Answer spatial and policy questions through the use of GIS, coding and AI.

Have a critical opinion about the use of advanced quantitative tools in urban planning and policy analysis;
Critical evaluate and analyse the potential and limitations of using quantitative methods in urban planning and policy analysis;
Demonstrate knowledge about the principles of spatial data analysis and its use in supporting spatial policy issues and actions
 

Data collection, processing and management skills;
Use a range of IT resources to obtain, analyse and present information, including open-access and proprietary databases and software to process data; 
Use of GIS to query, analyse, and present information in a professional manner; 
Use coding and AI to solve important spatial and policy analysis problems.
 

Use of different spatial analyses methods to develop evidence-based analysis to support policy design and monitoring in the context of both PPEM course units and the professional practice 
Reporting data analyses to support policy and planning processes; 
 

Assignment 1 - GIS Scenario Exercise: initial data and mapping skills 900 words 30% weighting

Assignment 2 - Individual Report 1800 words 60% weighting

Assignment 2 - Reproducible Workbook 10% weighting

Formative feedback (oral in class,)
Summative feedback (written in submission platform, 15 working days)
 

Carley, M. (1980) Rational Techniques in Policy Analysis: Heinemann Educational Books, London

Davies, H. (1995) Demographic Projection Techniques for Regions and Small Areas: A Primer UBC Press, Vancouver.

Field, B. and MacGregor, B. (1987) Forecasting Techniques for Urban and Regional Planning, Hutchinson, London.

Hambleton, R. and Thomas, H. (1995) Urban Policy Evaluation: Challenge and Change, Chapman, London.

Innes, J. E. (1990) Knowledge and Public Policy: the Search of Meaningful Indicators, New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.

ODPM (2006) A Framework for City Regions, ODPM (now DCLG), London.

(http://www.communities.gov.uk/pub/588/AFrameworkforCityRegionsResearchReportPDF814Kb_id1163588.pdf)

ODPM (2006) State of the English Cities, ODPM (now DCLG), London.

(http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1127498)

RTPI (2006) Uniting Britain: The evidence base - spatial structure and key drivers, RTPI, London

(http://www.rtpi.org.uk/resources/publications/spatial.html)

Wong, C. (2006) Indicators for Urban and Regional Planning: The Interplay of Policy and Methods, Routledge, London.

Wong, C., Baker, M., Webb, B., Hincks, S. and Schultze-Baing, A. (2015) ‘Mapping policies and programmes: the use of GIS to communicate spatial relationships in England’ Environment and Planning B.