Course summary

Completion of this part-time conversion Masters, following your undergraduate qualification, will allow you to become an accredited planner. This Higher Level Apprenticeship offers Department for Economy-funded places for those working in planning-related industry. Planning is a fascinating subject to study at university. It is about changing the places within which we live. How we can transform and improve our cities, towns, villages, neighbourhoods, and communities. So, it affects our everyday lives and is an extremely exciting discipline to study at university. A Planning degree provides you with the knowledge and skills to be able to make decisions that shape the processes of growth and development. We currently face many major challenges - for example, attracting investment, creating jobs, protecting the environment, energy policy, housing supply, transport links, providing local amenities, protecting health and wellbeing - and Planning affects how these things happen. Therefore, as future planners you will have a very important role to play in shaping the future. Planning is a broad subject matter and planners perform many different roles relating to the natural, physical, economic, social, and cultural environments that we live in. Given this, Planning offers a wide spectrum of employment opportunities. Studying Planning will equip you with the knowledge to understand how cities, towns, villages, communities, and neighbourhoods function and operate, and then have the skills to make decisions that shape how they grow and prosper. The discipline of Planning is located in the School of Natural and Built Environment, David Keir Building on Stranmillis Road, Belfast. Please note: Funded places this course are subject to renewal approval by the Department for the Economy. ABOUT YOU The HLA is a work / study programme so you will already be in employment, or have a firm offer of employment from a company in a planning-related sector which supports your application. Related sectors include: community development, environmental, housing, architecture, renewable energy, built heritage, legal, development and construction. You will have a keen interest in urban planning. You may already have experience of working in the field; however, hands on experience is not necessary for starting the course, but it can be useful. COURSE CONTENT The course’s primary focus is on attaining a professional qualification. It is designed as a conversion Masters for graduates in any undergraduate subject to provide a broad knowledge of planning and the professional skills and experience you’ll need to forge a career in this area. Your dissertation may be a work-based project, working for a client organisation on a brief that they commission. You will learn the use of techniques (GIS, design software, statistical analysis) but more importantly, how to apply them to solve problems, create new solutions for the built environment and understand the complexity of environmental management. THE ENVIRONMENT You’ll be working in an applied problem-solving environment, confronting genuine challenges in the field and making a real contribution to sustainable environments. We place an emphasis on projects on live planning problems such as a Development Plan exercise for a client (local authority), on studio work and applied learning outside the class including problem-solving with controversial proposals, such as fracking and windfarm applications. You’ll work with your fellow students in teams to find practical approaches to the management and development of the built environment.