MSc Sustainable Planning

Why choose Herts?

Industry Recognised Accreditation: Accredited by The Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI).

Work-Related Learning: You will attend annual Careers Fairs and will benefit from interactions with our vast employer links and Planning Employers Network.

This course is up for periodic review
To ensure this course continues to be cutting-edge and enables you to be ready for the modern workplace, it is due to be reviewed by March 2025.

Our website will typically be updated within a month of the review confirming any enhancements, including:
- module titles (and whether they are core or optional)
- expected contact hours
- assessment methods
- staff teaching on the course

An honours degree with a minimum classification of second class(2.2) or higher in any subject.

For country specific international qualifications please check here.

If English is not your first language, you will need a minimum IELTS score of 6.5 or equivalent. If you do not have the required level of English for entry, our academic English courses can help you to achieve this level.


Institution code	H36
School of study	School of Life and Medical Sciences
Course length	Full Time, 15 Months Full Time, 1 Years Part Time, 2 Years
Location	University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield

Employability

Careers

When you graduate from this course you will have excellent career opportunities in planning, environmental management, urban design and urbanism, community development and regeneration, transport management, climate change mitigation and adaptation and other planning related careers - all with a special focus on maximizing your sustainability expertise. Prospective employers include: local government; private sector planning consultancies; specialist consultancies in environmental management, urban design, transport planning; public involvement bodies; national government agencies; third sector employers including charities with an urban and rural focus; and professional bodies.

What job can I get?

The course provides graduates with excellent career opportunities in planning, environmental management, urban design, transport planning and management, climate change mitigation and other planning related careers. Graduates from our degrees are now working in a wide range of national and international roles at the forefront of tackling contemporary planning and sustainability issues.

Professional Accreditations

The course is accredited by the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI). As an accredited planning programme, you’ll benefit from the opportunity to become student members of the RTPI. As a student member of the Institute, you’ll have access to networking events and student resources. Upon graduation, you’ll be able to apply for full professional membership.

About the course

The MSc Sustainable Planning is delivered in the Ebenezer Howard School of Planning, reflecting our unique location in the county which houses the world’s first garden cities and our focus on exploring the contemporary planning implications of this placemaking patrimony.

Planning plays a key role to play in improving the condition of life in our towns, cities and rural areas. Towns and cities themselves impact on global sustainability and can play a very influential role in tackling global environmental, social and economic problems.

The breadth of material covered will give you the skills you need in order to meet contemporary sustainability challenges in planning cities and rural areas. The planning system provides one of the most sophisticated mechanisms for regulating environmental change, global environmental, social and economic problems and implementing sustainability principles.

You’ll benefit from a wide range of modules, from Planning Law, Policy and Practice to Sustainable Energy and Urban Design and Conservation. You'll choose between three pathways: MSc Sustainable Planning, MSc Sustainable Planning and Environmental Management and MSc Sustainable Planning and Transport.

This programme offers you opportunities to gain valuable skills in a much needed and fast changing professional area and makes you highly employable in a diverse range of disciplines which will allow you to contribute to the creation of more sustainable urban environments.

Why choose this course?

This exciting course is specifically aimed at people wishing to gain expertise in contemporary sustainability issues. It provides graduates with excellent career opportunities in a complete range of planning specialisms.

Through our problem-based approach, you’ll benefit from a stimulating learning environment which challenges you through real planning issues and case studies. You’ll learn the role planning plays in addressing, and solve key sustainability concerns, including climate change, urban sprawl, social cohesion, and demands for personal mobility. You’ll also get to use the latest techniques including GIS; urban design tools and community engagement techniques such as charrettes.

Throughout the course, you’ll be supported by research-active staff, and insights from a broad range of practitioner lecturers, who will encourage you to explore the latest research, applications of knowledge and case studies in the industry.

You’ll have the opportunity to go on field trips locally and further afield. The University of Hertfordshire is uniquely located near the world’s first Garden City - nearby Letchworth Garden City - and the first New Towns. Additionally, our Comparative Planning Practice module includes a residential visit to explore and compare transport planning systems in a different policy context. Any travel and accommodation costs of field trips are included in course fees.

Whether you have experience or a previous degree in planning, or a related discipline, this course will enable you to broaden your horizons and excel in your career. Previous students have joined the course from a range of backgrounds, including:

students who have had work experience in planning, or a related discipline
new graduates starting out their career in planning with a first degree in geography, environmental science, conservation, sociology, architecture and urban studies
students from other discipline who have developed an interest in planning through voluntary work, work experience or project work.

Whatever your background, this course will give you the skills you need to succeed.

We're proud to have ranked 9th overall for geography, earth and environmental studies in the Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES, Advance HE, 2023). You can be confident in knowing you're receiving an exceptional learning experience when you study this course.

What will I study?

The MSc Sustainable Planning programme structure is based on a series of modules each of which requires 150 hours of study. These modules are centred on short courses of two-to-three-day short courses that usually run Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

If you wish to study full-time, the short course components of the modules run approximately twice a month which means that you’ll be attending classes on four weekdays and two Saturdays.

If you want to study alongside your work commitments, the part-time offering enables you to take modules between two and five years. This makes the course flexible and easy to attend.

You’ll benefit from a blended learning approach. Teaching combines a face-to-face teaching and tutorials approach with virtual live teaching allowing easy contact with module leaders and tutors, excellent access to learning materials and online submission of assignments. Modules include workshops, field work, class exercises, seminars and group work. Any travel or accommodation costs of field visits are included in the programme fee.

All of the modules are assessed through coursework. The Environmental Management module only, has one exam. The nature of the coursework will vary, but will include experience in report writing, practical urban design work (no architecture background is required), oral presentations and negotiation skills.

An extended individual project, the sustainable planning dissertation, will give you the the opportunity to explore an area you’re interested and do primary research with support from an allocated supervisor. The supervisor will encourage you to explore the latest research and provide industry insight. You'll be encourage to link with external organisations, such as local government, voluntary sector organisations or planning consultancies, to produce this piece of primary research that is both academically challenging and of practical benefit.

Level 7

Module	Credits	Compulsory/optional
Spatial Analysis for Planning	15 Credits	Compulsory
The module gives an overview of application areas of GIS and remote sensing in spatial planning. The majority of time will be spent in exploring applications of GIS using planning focused case studies provided for the course. Major topics can include: urban services; land use and urban growth; planning for climate change; and planning and decision support systems used in development management. Students will learn how spatial information can be used to its full potential in these topics. Later in the course students will work with relevant, local case studies on specialist topics such as: urban poverty; urban infrastructure; and urban data collection and participatory GIS. At the end of the course, students will have a good overview of a variety of key applications of GIS for spatial planning. With this overview students should have a good basis to explore the various application fields and tailor those to their own projects.
Urban Design and Conservation	15 Credits	Compulsory
Urban design principles are central to planning successful places. This module is designed to develop a detailed knowledge of the uses and potential for urban design to create places of high quality and enhance the public realm for the benefit of all Students will consider urban design in a range of temporal and spatial contexts, including at the regional and city level, and consider best practice responses to key urban design issues such as sprawl, walkability, transport orientation and creating compact, mixed use development. Students will study how planners can develop a greater appreciation of social, cultural and economic heritage and gain a good understanding of theoretical and applied conservation approaches to the planning system at a local level. Both urban design and conservation aspects of the module will explain the contribution that planning can make to designing and conserving the built and natural environment, with an emphasis on combating climate change.
Sustainable Planning Dissertation	30 Credits	Compulsory
The dissertation provides an opportunity for students to carry out work in an area of planning that particularly interests them. Students are encouraged to choose an issue that addresses a contemporary concern in planning practice. They may choose to work on their dissertation with an external organisation such as a local authority, planning consultancy or voluntary sector organisation. The subject students select for their dissertation should reflect the specialism of their chosen pathway, i.e. students on the transport pathway should complete a transport related dissertation and students on the environmental management pathway should complete an environmental management related dissertation. The dissertation includes individual research. Students are also expected to integrate material from their taught classes in addressing the topic. All planning problems will raise social, economic and environmental issues, although the nature of the topic will influence the importance of each of these elements.
Research Methods	15 Credits	Compulsory
The module will introduce the main principles of research methodology, different approaches to solving a problem and the choice of appropriate research methodology. Natural science and social science research approaches will be explored including the development of the research question. Methods for sampling and data gathering will be described including experimentation, questionnaires, interviews, case studies, action research, content analysis and observation. Quantitative and qualitative data, its analysis, interpretation, presentation, and reporting will be explored.
Development Viability and Assessment	15 Credits	Compulsory
This module provides an understanding of the principal legal, economic and planning considerations that govern the decisions taken by actors within the property development process in the UK and internationally. The module considers how land values are created through the actions of various parties (betterment) and how they should be captured and distributed for the benefit of the wider community through the provision of affordable housing and other facilities. The concept of viability at the local plan and site scale will be analysed. Constraints on development presented by environmental and other factors such as land contamination and heritage assets will be considered. The role of local authorities as an enabler to development through compulsory purchase powers and planning agreements will be explored as will the rules governing compensation. Real life examples including local sites will be used to illustrate the tools used to undertake project appraisals.
Planning Law, Policy and Practice	15 Credits	Compulsory
The module focuses on the respective roles of law and policy in the planning process. It outlines the principal statutes and court decisions which define the powers of councils in determining planning applications, formulating development plans and taking enforcement action. Students will be taken through a planning decision and an appeal decision to learn how planners, councillors and planning inspectors approach the task of decision making within a discretionary system set within a statutory and policy framework. This will include the primacy of the development plan, the role of material considerations, the use of conditions and agreements, the scope of a planning permission and grounds for refusal. The scope for interactions between planning legislation and other legislation will be discussed.
Spatial Planning Theories and Strategies	15 Credits	Compulsory
The module provides students with an overview of the arguments advanced in the early 20th century for the establishment of state-led land use planning systems, using the UK as an example. It explores the concept of market failure which led to many urban problems such as poor housing and poor sanitation. The module then moves on to consider subsequent establishment of planned new towns in the UK and elsewhere in the world. The module examines the development of what was often labelled as 'rational comprehensive' planning during the 1950-70s when there was a general political consensus in support of state intervention. The module then moves on to examine the challenges to planning presented by the emergence of neoliberalism and market led policy. In parallel with these changes the module considers how the role of planners as professionals has changed. Specifically, it examines the transformation of the planner from that of a powerful technocrat to that of a mediator (the 'collaborative planner') whose function is to seek a consensus among competing interests. Following on from this, the module considers the ethical roles of planners and examines codes of professional conduct and ethics.
Community Engagement and the Planning Process	15 Credits	Compulsory
This module is designed to introduce students to the concept of public participation, and its development into stakeholder engagement, within the planning process. Students will investigate the various ways, statutory and otherwise, planners, developers and other stakeholders must involve public participation and community engagement in various projects. Key skills in engaging with stakeholders will be developed, along with a range of engagement and presentational skills.
Comparative Planning and Transport Practice	15 Credits	Compulsory
Students will gain direct experience of good practice in planning and transport in the development of sustainable communities, comparing and contrasting to England. This module and the field trip explore separate but connected themes at various spatial scales. At a macro level, students consider the role of the EU in land use planning and transport connectivity, environmental protection, regional economic development and cross border planning at local, regional and cross border settings. Students will also experience case-studies and best practice in sustainable housing, urbanism and high-quality public transport systems where there are important lessons that can be applied to the UK context.
Place-making and Spatial Mediation	15 Credits	Compulsory
This module is designed to introduce students to the concepts of place and space and the ways in which these can be mediated through place-making. The module will examine the ways in which places are managed, utilised and lived in and how such activities can change the way places are conceptualised. The module focuses on the ways in which places can be enhanced and the development of communities that engender social capital, community potential, good public health and well-being as well as a high quality of built form, function, connectivity and identity, and in so doing recognises the role of place-making in building sustainable communities. This module provides a focus for the importance of community engagement in the planning process and considers the role of localism, neighbourhood planning and digital tools and technologies to help address and enhance planning outcomes.
Sustainable Energy	15 Credits	Compulsory
The module explores key issues relating to sustainable energy and climate change in the context of spatial and transport planning and the environment, including its management in the UK and globally, including through the IPCC, UN SDGs, and UK climate change targets and net zero goals. To appreciate the problems, students first need to understand the main energy sources and broad patterns of energy consumption. The module also then explores the use of and interaction between place based, behaviour change and technical solutions in relation to energy sources and use. The module draws on examples of good practice from the UK and internationally. Climate change is an increasingly significant consideration requiring planners, transport planners and energy and environmental managers to develop positive adaptation and mitigation strategies. To make informed decisions about responses to climate change, students need to understand where to find reliable and robust data sources which can be justified as part of a critical evaluation of energy use and climate change. Students will understand the impacts of energy use on the environment at 0 variety of spatial scales, from international to the individual and the impacts in relation to planning, transport and the environment.
Study Skills	0 Credits	Compulsory
The content will cover finding and using reliable resources and how to use appropriate academic expression for different forms of academic communications including essays, reports, abstracts, executive summaries, essays, poster and oral presentations. Attention will be paid to ensuring that students have the skills necessary to use text matching software to avoid plagiarism and enhance scholarship skills. Teaching resources will also cover an introduction to using statistics and graphs, and there will be an in-class GIS session. Indicative subjects include: Effective reading and note taking in lectures Choosing reliable sources Use of text references and avoiding plagiarism/collusion Writing assignments Teamwork Time and project management The use of Excel formulae Exam preparation Oral presentation and visual materials e.g., PowerPoint and preparing a poster Using maps and GIS software to support research.

Further course information

Course fact sheets
MSc Sustainable Planning	Download

Programme specifications
MSc Sustainable Planning	Download

Additional information
Sandwich placement or study abroad year	n/a
Applications open to international and EU students	Yes

Student experience

At the University of Hertfordshire, we want to make sure your time studying with us is as stress-free and rewarding as possible. We offer a range of support services including; student wellbeing, academic support, accommodation and childcare to ensure that you make the most of your time at Herts and can focus on studying and having fun.

Find out about how we support our students

You can also read our student blogs to find out about life at Herts.

Funding and fees
Other financial support

Find out more about other financial support available to UK and EU students

Fees 2023
UK Students

Full time
- £9900 for the 2023/2024 academic year
Part time
- £825 per 15 credits for the 2023/2024 academic year
EU Students

Full time
- £15450 for the 2023/2024 academic year
Part time
- £1290 per 15 credits for the 2023/2024 academic year
International Students

Full time
- £15450 for the 2023/2024 academic year
Part time
- £1290 per 15 credits for the 2023/2024 academic year
Fees 2024
UK Students

Full time
- £10395 for the 2024/2025 academic year
Part time
- £865 per 15 credits for the 2024/2025 academic year
EU Students

Full time
- £16450 for the 2024/2025 academic year
Part time
- £1370 per 15 credits for the 2024/2025 academic year
International Students

Full time
- £16450 for the 2024/2025 academic year
Part time
- £1370 per 15 credits for the 2024/2025 academic year
*Tuition fees are charged annually. The fees quoted above are for the specified year(s) only. Fees may be higher in future years, for both new and continuing students. Please see the University's Fees and Finance Policy (and in particular the section headed "When tuition fees change"), for further information about when and by how much the University may increase its fees for future years.

View detailed information about tuition fees

Living costs / accommodation

The University of Hertfordshire offers a great choice of student accommodation, on campus or nearby in the local area, to suit every student budget.

View detailed information about our accommodation

Read more about additional fees in the course fact sheet

International/EU applicants without pre-settled status in the UK

Apply through our international/EU application portal

Home and EU applicants with pre-settled/settled status in the UK

2024

Start Date	End Date	Link
21/09/2024	25/09/2025	Apply online (Full Time)
20/01/2025	31/05/2026	Apply online (Full Time)
21/09/2024	25/09/2025	Apply online (Part Time)
20/01/2025	24/01/2026	Apply online (Part Time)

2025

Start Date	End Date	Link
21/09/2025	25/09/2026	Apply online (Full Time)
20/01/2026	31/05/2027	Apply online (Full Time)
21/09/2025	25/09/2026	Apply online (Part Time)
20/01/2026	24/01/2027	Apply online (Part Time)

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MSc Sustainable Planning

Why choose Herts?

Careers

What job can I get?

Professional Accreditations

About the course

Why choose this course?

What will I study?

Further course information

Student experience

Other financial support

Fees 2023

UK Students

Full time

Part time

EU Students

Full time

Part time

International Students

Full time

Part time

Fees 2024

UK Students

Full time

Part time

EU Students

Full time

Part time

International Students

Full time

Part time

Living costs / accommodation

International/EU applicants without pre-settled status in the UK

Home and EU applicants with pre-settled/settled status in the UK

2024

2025