Future Cities - course unit details - MPlan Planning - full details (2025 entry)

Duration: 4 years
Year of entry: 2025
UCAS course code: K401 / Institution code: M20

Key features:
Study abroad
Scholarships available
Field trips
Accredited course

Typical A-level offer: ABB
Typical contextual A-level offer: BBC
Refugee/care-experienced offer: BBC
Typical International Baccalaureate offer: 34 points overall with 6,5,5 at HL

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Fees and funding

Fees

Tuition fees for home students commencing their studies in September 2025 will be £9,535 per annum (subject to Parliamentary approval). Tuition fees for international students will be £29,000 per annum. For general information please see the undergraduate finance pages.

Additional expenses

This course has normally included an overseas field trip in year 4, which is an optional part of the course. Please note there is a student contribution towards the cost of the trip depending on the location.

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 are committed to attracting and supporting the very best students from all backgrounds to study this course.

You could be eligible for cash bursaries of up to £2,500 to support your studies.

Find out about our funding opportunities

Course unit details:
Future Cities

Course unit fact file
Unit code	PLAN36021
Credit rating	20
Unit level	Level 3
Teaching period(s)	Semester 1
Available as a free choice unit?	Yes

Overview

The course unit will examine how cities are developing around the world in what we call the ‘urban age’. Each day there are an estimated 193,107 new urban dwellers (UN-Habitat 2009). This is equivalent to a city larger than the size of Dallas every week, the population of Rio de Janeiro just over every month or a new Russia every two years. Across the globe, the city has been overwhelmingly selected as the habitat of choice for humanity and has consequently become the nexus for an array of physical, economic, social, political and cultural capital. So, by the middle of the twenty first century three in four of us will live in cities.

We are living in the urban age, which is more than just about cities, but is about how a mode of organizing space and society is shaping the world in which almost all of us live. Those great cities of the twentieth century – Paris, London and others – continue to grow in size, slowly but surely. However, some of the most important changes are happening elsewhere in the world-Delhi, Karachi, Mumbai, Shanghai, São Paulo; these cities are where the action is, where population growth rates are the highest, and where the issues of producing and managing ecological, economically, and socially sustainable cities are at the most pressing.

In this light, the course will introduce students to the challenges currently facing cities and to some of the ways academics have sought to make sense of them and policy-makers have sort to overcome them. Using case studies and discussions, the students will be equipped with knowledge to understand how cities of the future might develop, with a particular focus on the notion of the ‘smart’ city.

Aims

The unit aims to:

• Explore the principles, nature and practice of planning systems and processes around the world

• Develop knowledge on different approaches to planning and development

• Stimulate critical thinking such on different approaches to planning and development

• Reflect on future trends in urban development in global cities

• Introduce the notion of the future ‘smart’ city in a global context

Learning outcomes

Students will be able to:

Syllabus

Syllabus (indicative curriculum content):

Planning systems
City profiling
Future cities: big picture
Future cities and climate change
Smart future cities
Future cities: utopia or dystopia?

Teaching and learning methods

Lectures (11 x 2 hours = 22 hours):

Each element of the course unit will be covered through interactive lectures with opportunities for discussion and supported by asynchronous multimedia materials provided on VLE.

Workshops (9 x 1 hour = 9 hours):

Core themes are discussed in these Q and A sessions to allow discussion and application of knowledge and skills individually or in small groups followed by more plenary discussion.

Knowledge and understanding

Explain different types of planning system across the globe.
Discuss the current issues facing cities in relation to their future development.
Recognise the challenges of what is commonly referred to as the ‘urban age’.
Express the notion of the ‘smart’ city.

Intellectual skills

Evaluate how cities are coping with competing social, economic and environmental demands.
Compare the global spatial disparities between cities.
Summarise existing research on the different theoretical perspectives for understanding what is commmonly referred to as the 'urban age'

Practical skills

Illustrate arguments with examples and case studies drawn from cities around the world.
Recognise the various methods that have been used to study the current and future challenges facing cities around the world.

Transferable skills and personal qualities

Develop critical writing and analysis.
Effectively communicate ideas and concepts orally and in writing.

Assessment methods

Method	Weight
Other	40%
Written assignment (inc essay)	60%

Formative Assessment

Assignment surgeries are provided online for both Assignment 1 and Assignment 2.

Summative Assessment

Individual poster, Maximum 3xA3 Sheets (40% Weighting)

Essay and critical reflection, 2500-3000 words (60% Weighting)

Feedback methods