Development Planning Unit

For the first time in history, more than half of humankind lives in towns and cities. Urban growth is substantially transforming the face of the planet. The performance of cities in accommodating and benefiting from these radical and rapid changes that accompany urban growth have substantial importance for national and international development at all levels. Increasing globalisation of economic relations is restructuring many cities, benefiting some citizens, whilst marginalising others. Simultaneously, the liberalisation of policy and planning controls is changing the roles and relationships between those involved in the development and management of cities. The result of these global, national and local processes is that cities, and the planning of cities, have become increasingly fragmented, while inequality and environmental degradation has increased. The challenge for urban development planning is to be able to respond to these problems, working with the enormous potentials of urban populations to transform cities into places where women and men of different classes, ethnic groups, religions and ages, can exercise real choice in their lives.

Objectives of the Course

The central focus of the MSc Urban Development Planning (UDP) is international practices in urban development policy, planning and management addressing spatial, socio-economic and political transformation in Africa, Asia, Middle East and Latin America. The objective of the course is to equip participants to work effectively as development practitioners in urban contexts, whether at policy or delivery levels, through a deeper understanding of the processes that generate urban change, and to enhance their diagnostic and strategic capacities to respond to such change within the framework of socially just urban governance. While the focus of the programme is explicitly on the intersection of such processes and planning practice in the context of cities in the developing world (the global South), the knowledge, methodologies and skills obtained during the MSc are nevertheless applicable to urban processes occurring in the developed global North as well. The course is primarily focused on the city, and is concerned with urban policy formulation, planning and implementation through management, explicitly addressing the power relations present in the urban context and the dynamics of engagement between the different institutional actors. In this sense, it promotes a deeper understanding of community-led urban development in partnership with other actors, based on political economy, socio-cultural and spatial perspectives on urban policy, planning and management. Examining specific case studies in cities of the global South and North, it emphasises the importance of scaling-up processes and practices from the neighbourhood / locality to the city level. The course benefits from having an interdisciplinary group of students that can provide different and complementary perspectives, resulting in rich discussion and debate.

[Modules] [London & Overseas Fieldwork] [Dissertation Report]

Core and Optional Modules

The MSc programme represents approximately 1,800 hours of student learning time. This involves a number of activities such as lectures, seminars, workshops, tutorials, field visits, field trip, project work, private reading, writing and revising for examinations.

The course is structured so that 75% of the taught components of the course (90 credits) are devoted to the core subjects of Urban Development Planning and 25% (30 credits) to an option from a range of modules on offer. The core modules provide the theoretical and methodological components of the course focusing on urbanisation; urban policy, planning, and management; organisational change and strategic intervention for urban development. While the optional module allows students to examine different approaches and problems in accordance with their own particular interests. 

The teaching input takes place in the first two terms of the academic year (September to March) with the exception of the Practice in Urban Development Planning module which spans three terms (September to June). A module is only finalized once work is completed in all its elements of performance assessment (e.g. course work, essays, project reports, and where required, written exams).

For a description of each core and optional modules click on the link below

[Modules]

London-Based Fieldwork

The course actively strives to embrace both theory and practice throughout, with one of the three core modules being specifically practice-oriented. As a result, throughout the year students are encouraged to engage in practical exercises in London, both intra- and extra-curricularly; these activities involve mapping areas, interviewing local actors and observing planning processes unfolding in local areas. Inevitably, the course could not but engage with the diversity, multiculturalism and urban planning initiatives emerging in London ahead of the 2012 Olympic Games. In this spirit, over recent years students have undertaken group work, responding to simulated consultancy briefs generated by the course staff: In 2007 students worked on the social and urban changes in the Borough of Tower Hamlets (East London); in 2008 students developed a participatory research project of community mapping with the residents of the housing estates located at the border with the Hackney Marshes in the Borough of Hackney. More recently, 2009 students have been exploring the 2012 Olympics Legacy and its potential in enhancing social inclusion and environmental justice in the experience, use and appropriation of public space by the diverse young people 13-19 years old in Hackney Wick.

In further trying to present students with practical, real-life planning issues of the South, during the First Term (November) students attend an in-house 3-day workshop in Cumberland Lodge, Windsor with the rest of the DPU student body. This is a unique experience to work on an ongoing case study with experts from the field and, at the same time, socialise with other students. The focus of these cases is on policy deliberated amongst a wide array of stakeholders; recent cases addressed include “Responses to Post-Emergency Reconstruction in Honduras” and “Policy Responses To Forced Evictions In Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic”.

Overseas Fieldwork

In the Third Term (May) students travel abroad to a city in the South to conduct a fourteen-day fieldwork in groups. The purpose of the trip is to give students hands-on experience in processes of urban change, community-led initiatives and policy challenges in the urban context of the South. Students are asked to explore a given urban issue through teamwork and, after meeting with the stakeholders involved, produce recommendations for the institutions and communities present in the area. So far, fieldtrips have taken place in Cairo ( Egypt), Accra ( Ghana) and Mumbai (India).

The Dissertation Report

In addition to the taught and practice component, students are required to write a report (60 credits), which focuses on a topic selected by themselves, bringing together debates and concerns in urban development planning emanating from the modules studied until that point and from their own particular interests. Examples of former student reports are the following:

* Context and Power in Contemporary Planning – Towards Reflective Planning Analytics
* Building Sustainable Peace: Addressing the Issue of Internally Displaced People in the Context of Urban Development Planning
* Crisis, What Crisis? Challenging the Urban Water Challenge of the Twenty-first Century
* The Right to the City: Spaces of Insurgent Citizenship among Pavement Dwellers in Mumbai, India
* Towards a Just Jerusalem: contextualizing the ‘right to the city’ in a fragmented, binational urban space
* Capitalism and urbanization – new geographies, old unevenness: a look at the metropolitan region of Curitiba, Brazil
* The development plan as a tool for urban development planning: an evaluation of contributions to poverty reduction in Lusaka, Zambia
* Excluded women’s transport needs: the case of Johannesburg, South Africa
* Regional spatial planning: a meaningful tool for promoting co-ordination in response to sustainable development in the Pearl River Delta, China
* Towards the inclusion of the informal city: an analysis of policy towards unplanned settlements in Dar-es- Salaam, Tanzania
* The Missing Element: HIV/AIDS in Urban Development Planning. Reviewing the South African response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic
* Does urban risk jeopardise urban development planning?
* Towards an Urban citizenship? A Critical Assessment of the City Development Strategy
* Alternative Spatialities to Think Urban Interventions: a Critique of the Production of Space in the Urban Regeneration Approach, Reflected in the Case of Puerto Madero, Argentina
* Strategic Intervention in the Implementation of European Commission Programmes in the London Borough of Greenwich
* Prospects for Incorporating Collective Migrant Remittances in Low Income Housing Finance Strategies
* The Symbolic Imperative: Space, Culture and Policing in Global New York
* Does the Proposal to Redevelop Dharavi, Mumbai support and Inclusive Approach to Housing Low Income Residents?
* Peace, Planning and Justice. The case of Choueifat's continuous violent conflicts

The learning outcomes aimed for upon completion of the MSc amount to:

Knowledge And Understanding Of:

Teaching/Learning Methods And Strategies:

Seminars, lectures and work in small teams (both inside and outside the classroom)

Integrative 2-3 day workshops.

Visits to specific London sites and projects

Subject-specific academic skills sessions

Overseas fieldtrip to a developing country and subsequent Report

Intellectual (Thinking) Skills:

The programme aims to help students:

Teaching/Learning Methods And Strategies:

Acquisition of skills 1 and 5 fostered in all modules, report work and other course activities (e.g. workshops and fieldtrip) that require understanding and responding to the basic needs of the urban poor and to the diverse demands of the more affluent in society, the conservation of historic built heritage, the high costs and intrinsic value of urban land, the scarcity of public sector resources, the delivery of infrastructure and services, with a particular focus on developing countries.

Practical Skills (able to):

The programme aims to help students:

Teaching/Learning Methods And Strategies:

Transferable Skills (able to):

The programme encourages students to:

Teaching/Learning Methods And Strategies:

• Eleni Kyrou, Course Director
  

• Caren Levy, Course Co Director

• Isis Nunez Ferrera, Course Coordinator
  

• Jorge Fiori, Senior Lecturer
  

• Camillo Boano, Lecturer
  

• Julian Walker, Lecturer
  

Teaching inputs are also provided by guest lecturers and other DPU staff

Course dates

The course commences in September each year and lasts for 12 calendar months. Students who cannot devote a whole year to full-time study may enrol part-time over a maximum of five years.

Entrance Qualifications

Candidates should have a minimum of a 2:2 honors degree awarded by a university or polytechnic that is approved by University College London. Candidates who lack the required qualifications but have other relevant educational or professional experience may be considered in exceptional circumstances.

English language

Please note that all DPU courses are taught in English, therefore, you will have to show evidence of proficiency in the English language. There are a variety of English language qualifications that are acceptable.

Costs and fees

Tuition fees are fixed annually by University College London and are therefore subject to modification. The fee for this course for the 2010/11 academic year for overseas students is £15,510; PG Dip £11,555, and for European Union students is £7,600; PG Dip £5,625. The fee covers the cost of all tuition and basic course costs, including field visits and the field trip overseas. Participants should allow approximately £915 per month to cover the cost of living, clothing, books and local travel in London.

Participants and Career Opportunities

UDP students have very varied educational and/or professional backgrounds and come from a wide range of nationalities. Indeed, such interdisciplinarity and multiculturalism are actively encouraged by the course, as we believe that they contribute to the richness and added value of the experience of studying at the DPU. The interdisciplinarity recorded so far amongst our students ranges from architecture, arts, geography and engineering to sociology, history, economic, political science and business management and administration. In our experience so far, the reasons for joining this particular MSc programme vary across our student body. Some students arrive at this course already possessing a certain level of professional experience, wishing instead to finetune into policy formulation and implementation, to familiarise themselves with urban planning and management processes or to change their careers and firmly move into this disciplinary field career-wise. Others come straight from their undergraduate studies with little or no professional background yet fresh with academic training, expecting the course to give them a higher degree of specialised qualification, as well as precious exposure to development planning practice and networking by way of its Practice module and the fieldwork undertaken as part of the curriculum both in the global South and London. All this makes up a very challenging and exciting combination of potential inputs to the course that is reflected in the focus and teaching approach we adopt. The average number of students on the course each year is approximately fifteen women and men, facilitating positive learning and a close working relationship with members of staff.

The MSc UDP degree is widely recognised by international organizations and agencies (such as UN agencies and the World Bank), bilateral aid organisations from different countries (including the UK's Department for International Development but other government aid programmes as well) and by many national organisations alike. This degree has been an integral and core course of DPU for a long time now and the two are instantly associated; in this sense, UDP alumni automatically draw upon the international respect enjoyed by DPU on the basis of its expertise in and contribution to urban development and action planning to date. There is enormous variety in the work UDP graduates get into after the course. This ranges from work with UK-based organizations in the public, private and community sectors which focus on local as well as international development, to governmental, inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations which operate in a development capacity in the South. There is also variety in the geographic location of UDP alumni: some decide to return to their home countries with the additional MSc qualification and knowledge and engage in the practice, teaching or research of urban development practice there; alternatively, quite a few of our former students have successfully sought employment in international development organisations (from grassrrots to multilateral tiers) away from their own countries. As a result, DPU can boast a global network of UDP alumni spread across many continents, countries and organisations, often facilitating that essential first introduction of a UDP applicant into employment.