Course description
Explore how cities can become more inclusive, just and sustainable.
MSc Urban Studies examines how cities around the world are responding to contemporary challenges including environmental change, inequality, housing, infrastructure, development and governance. The course provides a critical understanding of how urban futures are shaped by social, political, economic and environmental processes.
Drawing on expertise from the university-wide Manchester Urban Institute, the programme is taught by staff from Geography, Architecture, Global Development, and Planning and Environmental Management. This interdisciplinary approach helps you understand urban life and urban change from a range of perspectives, and shows how different disciplines contribute to addressing urban challenges.
Manchester itself forms an important part of your learning experience. As a city shaped by industrialisation, regeneration and urban transformation, it provides a rich environment for exploring how cities evolve and respond to change. Course units draw on Manchester’s history, present-day challenges and international connections to bring theory and practice together.
You will learn from internationally recognised researchers whose work addresses urban issues across the globe. Through engagement with research, policy and practice, you will build analytical and critical skills for understanding complex urban problems and evaluating possible responses.
You will benefit from guest lectures, seminars and research events that connect you with urban scholars and practitioners from Manchester and around the world. These opportunities expose you to current debates in urban studies and help you understand how ideas, policies and practices travel across different city contexts.
You will also build practical communication and policy skills through applied learning. Depending on your unit choices, this may include designing and debating policy, proposing responses to urban sustainability challenges, producing professional writing with support from external partners, and communicating ideas through creative formats such as walking tours, short videos and podcasts. These experiences help prepare you for roles in government, consultancy, civil society, community organisations and research.
The course is particularly suitable for students interested in urban research and in the role cities play in shaping more inclusive, just and sustainable futures.
Support
You get lots of help along the way from our academic staff. You’ll have a personal tutor throughout your degree to offer regular guidance and support, and an additional expert dissertation adviser to assist you in designing and undertaking an original, independent research dissertation. Dissertation advisors are matched to your interests and background, drawing on staff from across many Planning, Architecture, Geography, and Global Development. There is also lots of skills training embedded throughout the degree to give you the tools you need for your degree and beyond.
Special features
- Tailor your learning through core and optional units that connect urban theory, policy, methods and practice .
- Study at a University home to world-class researchers and the Manchester Urban Institute (MUI).
- Use Manchester as a living urban laboratory, exploring a city shaped by industrialisation, regeneration, inequality, activism and global connections.
Coursework and assessment
Course unit details
A master’s degree is formed of 180 credits.
120 of these credits are made up by a mix of mandatory and optional course units, with 60 credits taken in each semester.
The availability of individual course units may be subject to change. Information that is sent to you in August about registration onto the course will clearly state the course units that are available in the academic year ahead.
The remaining 60 credits are awarded through a compulsory research component in the form of a dissertation. Your dissertation must be within the area of one of the course units you have chosen and you will be assigned an academic dissertation-advisor who is experienced in your chosen field.
The MSc in Urban Studies teaches you using a variety of teaching and assessment methods and allows you to tailor your degree choosing from a range of course units. It offers a broad training in urban studies concepts, methods, and theories. Course units involve a range of formative and summative assessments, including individual and group work, oral presentations and long essays, project work and reports. The design of coursework allows you to pursue your particular areas of interest within urban studies. In the summer semester, you work independently but in a supported manner, to undertake dissertation work based on primary and/or secondary data, or else a more philosophical/theoretical dissertation.
The programme consists of four compulsory course units and four optional course units offered through a range of departments, including business studies, development studies, geography, history, planning, and sociology. You will also complete a dissertation unit of 60 credits, which involves designing, conducting, and producing an independent research project on a topic of your choice related to urban studies.
The compulsory course units are:
- Critical issues in urban studies;
- Researching the city;
- Policy and politics in action in Greater Manchester;
- Global urban future.
Course unit list
The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.
| Title | Code | Credit rating | Mandatory/optional |
|---|---|---|---|
| Urban Studies Dissertation | URBN70000 | 60 | Mandatory |
| Critical Issues in Urban Studies | URBN70001 | 15 | Mandatory |
| Policy Making in Greater Manchester | URBN70011 | 15 | Mandatory |
| Researching the City | URBN70022 | 15 | Mandatory |
| Global Urban Futures | URBN70032 | 15 | Mandatory |
| Place and innovation, from Silicon Valley to Graphene City | BMAN62062 | 15 | Optional |
| Qualitative Research Approaches | EVDV70012 | 15 | Optional |
| Quantitative Research | EVDV70022 | 15 | Optional |
| From Cottonopolis to Metropolis: Manchester Communities & Institutions | HIST64292 | 15 | Optional |
| Critical Issues in Urban Inequality | MGDI60531 | 15 | Optional |
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Facilities
You will have access to University facilities and resources that support urban research, spatial analysis and independent study, including:
- GIS, digital mapping and spatial analysis facilities, including access to a Geocomputational Suite supporting work in GIS and remote sensing.
- Advanced computing facilities for coding, data analysis and digital research methods.
- A virtual reality lab supporting research into urban environments and spatial experience.
- The University’s Main Library, which provides extensive study space, specialist collections and access to the University Map Collection.