Spatial Planning and Development (MSc)
- Duration: 1 year
- Mode: Full time
Conversion course
This is a conversion course. Conversion courses allow you to study a subject unrelated to your undergraduate degree or current career, and support you with a change of career path.
Open day
Find out more about studying here as a postgraduate at our next Open Day.
Why study this course
The MSc Spatial Planning and Development aims to put you on the road to being a good planner.
Professionally recognised
Fully accredited by the Royal Town Planning Institute and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors - providing access to membership.
Gain practical experience
Work on live projects with real clients such as a planning authority or agency and benefit from the experience of a range of guest speakers from practices.
Accelerate your career
Develop skills and knowledge directly relevant to planning and development roles in public, private and voluntary sectors in order to create stronger, liveable, and prosperous places.
Flexible study
Full-time or part-time study is available allowing you the option to complete the degree in one year or work part time and complete it in two years.
Our MSc in Spatial Planning and Development (accredited by the RTPI and RICS) is the ideal starting point for your career as a planner or surveyor and will develop and strengthen your core planning and development skills, relevant and applicable to a range of spatial scales. It will provide you with the theoretical knowledge, critical insight and practical abilities to achieve your ambitions and positively contribute to the practices and policies of planning and development, in the UK and beyond.
Planning and development is often undertaken in diverse, and sometimes unequal or unjust societies and can be the subject of debate and struggle. This is why, while acquiring the specialist skills you will need to succeed, we’ll also help you nurture your professional judgement and be sensitive to wider ethical, political and environmental challenges. We'll empower you to question the status quo and challenge your own thinking to form and articulate independent conclusions.
Our focus is on planning and development in advanced market economies, especially the UK and Europe, but the programme’s exploration of planning and development is comparative, and the skills taught are applicable in many planning contexts.
Accreditations
Where you'll study
School of Geography and Planning
Join us as we explore and tackle the social, political, economic, development and environmental challenges which affect where and how we live.
Admissions criteria
This is a conversion course. Conversion courses allow you to study a subject unrelated to your undergraduate degree or current career, and support you with a change of career path. No prior knowledge or degree in the subject is required.
In order to be considered for an offer for this programme you will need to meet all of the entry requirements. Your application will not be progressed if the information and evidence listed is not provided.
With your online application you will need to provide:
- A copy of your degree certificate and transcripts which show you have achieved a 2:2 honours degree in a relevant subject area such as architecture, economics, engineering, geography, history, politics and sociology, or an equivalent international degree. If your degree certificate or result is pending, please upload any interim transcripts or provisional certificates.
- A copy of your IELTS certificate with an overall score of 6.5 with 5.5 in all subskills, or evidence of an accepted equivalent. Please include the date of your expected test if this qualification is pending. If you have alternative acceptable evidence, such as an undergraduate degree studied in the UK, please supply this in place of an IELTS.
If you do not have a degree in a relevant area, your application may be considered on the basis of your professional experience. Please provide additional evidence to support your application such as signed and dated employer references.
Application Deadline
We allocate places on a first-come, first-served basis, so we recommend you apply as early as possible. Applications normally close at the end of August but may close sooner if all places are filled.
Selection process
We will review your application and if you meet all of the entry requirements, we will make you an offer.
Find out more about English language requirements.
Applicants who require a Student visa to study in the UK must present an acceptable English language qualification in order to meet UKVI (UK Visas and Immigration) requirements.
Criminal convictions
You are not required to complete a DBS (Disclosure Barring Service) check or provide a Certificate of Good Conduct to study this course.
If you are currently subject to any licence condition or monitoring restriction that could affect your ability to successfully complete your studies, you will be required to disclose your criminal record. Conditions include, but are not limited to:
- access to computers or devices that can store images
- use of internet and communication tools/devices
- curfews
- freedom of movement
- contact with people related to Cardiff University.
Course structure
The MSc Spatial Planning and Development is a one year full-time programme.
It is divided into two parts:
- Part one comprises a teaching programme of compulsory and option modules over two semesters.
- Part two comprises an individual dissertation. You will select your topic in consultation with members of staff. The topic must be planning related. If you are a student from a country outside the UK, the dissertation may focus on a planning issue in your country of origin. An important aspect of the dissertation process is student reflection on what is involved in researching a planning topic.
The modules shown are an example of the typical curriculum. Final modules will be published one month ahead of your programme starting.
You will be required to take taught modules to a value of 120 credits altogether, 60 credits in year one and 60 credits in year two, as well as the dissertation which is worth 60 credits.
| Module title | Module code | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Site Planning, Design and Development | CPT805 | 20 credits |
| Live Project | CPT831 | 20 credits |
| Planning and Real Estate | CPT857 | 20 credits |
| Critical Planning Practice and Research | CPT923 | 20 credits |
| Dissertation | CPT508 | 60 credits |
| Module title | Module code | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Environmental Policy and Climate Change | CPT855 | 20 credits |
| Designing Cities | CPT867 | 20 credits |
| Planning for Sustainability | CPT878 | 20 credits |
| Urban and Regional Development in Practice | CPT892 | 20 credits |
| Sustainable Transport Policies | CPT903 | 20 credits |
| Renewable Energy Development and Planning | CPT909 | 20 credits |
| Digital Planning and Development | CPT931 | 20 credits |
You will be required to take taught modules to a value of 120 credits altogether, 60 credits in year one and 60 credits in year two, as well as the dissertation which is worth 60 credits.
The University is committed to providing a wide range of module options where possible, but please be aware that whilst every effort is made to offer choice this may be limited in certain circumstances. This is due to the fact that some modules have limited numbers of places available, which are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, while others have minimum student numbers required before they will run, to ensure that an appropriate quality of education can be delivered; some modules require students to have already taken particular subjects, and others are core or required on the programme you are taking. Modules may also be limited due to timetable clashes, and although the University works to minimise disruption to choice, we advise you to seek advice from the relevant School on the module choices available.
Learning and assessment
How will I be assessed?
The assessment methods used include:
- Essays
- Reports
- Project work
- Posters
- Reflective journals
- Verbal presentations.
Essays and reports will be used particularly to test your core knowledge and powers of analysis. They will allow you to employ knowledge generated during the modules in pieces of policy evaluation or sustainable development in action.
Project work and reflective journals will be especially important in testing subject skills in planning.
Seminar presentations, debates and posters will encourage you both to develop and clarify your understanding of core knowledge (in order to defend a debating a position) and give you an opportunity to enhance your communication skills.
How will I be supported?
- Access to a dedicated 40 PC laboratory with high quality peripherals including; network account laser printing, large format colour printing, A4 colour printing
- GIS facilities/workstation/access to Edina digimap digital mapping facility
- Dedicated computer technician
- An additional 30 PC open-access laboratory in the Glamorgan Building
- An excellent Planning library containing around 12,000 books, 280 journal titles and substantial annual stock expenditure
- Access to online international databases/computerised library facilities
- A detailed and comprehensive personal tutor scheme
- English language support if English is not your first language
- Access to Dyslexia resource facilities
- Support if you are working/assessed through the medium of Welsh
- Professional skills delivery during the induction week to provide you with training on computer use, presentation skills etc
- Use of Blackboard in all modules to provide module information and learning resources.
Feedback
You will have the chance to regularly review your progress with your personal tutor. You will also be given written feedback on all assessments.
What skills will I practise and develop?
You will develop a range of professional and transferable skills including:
- Analytical skills, including research skills
- Communication skills, especially report writing and presentations
- Time management
- ICT skills
- Team working
- Using the planning policy process
- Planning law (introductory)
- Site planning
- Development appraisal in relation to planning.
Tuition fees for 2025 entry
Your tuition fees and how you pay them will depend on your fee status. Your fee status could be home, island or overseas.
Learn how we decide your fee status
Fees for home status
| Year | Tuition fee | Deposit |
|---|---|---|
| Year one | £10,700 | None |
Students from the EU, EEA and Switzerland
If you are an EU, EEA or Swiss national, your tuition fees for 2025/26 be in line with the overseas fees for international students, unless you qualify for home fee status. UKCISA have provided information about Brexit and tuition fees.
Fees for island status
Learn more about the postgraduate fees for students from the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man.
Fees for overseas status
| Year | Tuition fee | Deposit |
|---|---|---|
| Year one | £24,700 | £2,500 |
More information about tuition fees and deposits, including for part-time and continuing students.
Financial support
Financial support may be available to individuals who meet certain criteria. For more information visit our funding section. Please note that these sources of financial support are limited and therefore not everyone who meets the criteria are guaranteed to receive the support.
Additional costs
A number of field study visits may be arranged during the course. We partly subsidise these trips but you should allow for travelling and subsistence expenses.
Living costs
We’re based in one of the UK’s most affordable cities. Find out more about living costs in Cardiff.
Funding
Career prospects
Graduates of this course do extremely well in getting the jobs they want and the input of people from practice into the degree keeps it relevant. You also benefit from making great contacts.
Principal graduate employment destinations are UK and EU town and regional planning organisations, including local and regional authorities, national government agencies, private planning consultancy firms and voluntary organisations. We also have students employed in North America and Australia.
Fieldwork
A number of field study visits may be arranged during the course. We partly subsidise these trips but you should allow for travelling and subsistence expenses.
Next steps
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HESA Data: Copyright Higher Education Statistics Agency Limited 2021. The Higher Education Statistics Agency Limited cannot accept responsibility for any inferences or conclusions derived by third parties from its data. Data is from the latest Graduate Outcomes Survey 2019/20, published by HESA in June 2022.
