Aims and Outcomes

MSc Urban Spatial Science - Aims and Outcomes

Experience a broad range of theoretical perspectives on the demographics, economics, form, function, network interactions, governance, policy, planning and, crucially, science of cities across the World.
Equip students with qualitative, quantitative and spatial analytic skills for the interpretation of urban data leading to data-informed decisions and policies.
Explore emerging technological innovations, methodologies and theories in cities across the Globe to tackle fundamental governance and sustainability problems facing the urbanised World.
Empower students to critically engage with and reflect upon commonly used concepts, methods and buzzwords in urban analytics and governance, providing confidence in responding to technological transitions and a robust foundation for future employment.
Combine the taught material, academic expertise and personal research interests to develop an independent and unique research project into a pertinent and applied urban-centric topic.

Knowledge and understanding

Identify key urban theories and discuss their relationship to contemporary challenges
Outline topical global urban problems alongside recent methodological approaches and establish the validity of spatial analysis in furthering understanding
Critically debate and assess urban research in relation to methodological advancement and policy outcomes
Build upon module content and wider academic and policy literature in formulating independent, reproducible and original urban related research

Skills, techniques, methods and practical applications of concepts and theories

Identify geo-spatial data sources and critically assess their applicability for urban focused studies
Explain and implement relevant geo-spatial analytical and visualisation approaches in relation to relevant theory
Propose smart, data-informed and appropriate solutions for contemporary and future urban challenges
Undertake spatial analysis and urban science research to produce outputs — including data visualisation — appropriate to the intended audience
Describe and evaluate competing urban data sources, methodologies, workflows and visualisations
Compose academically rigorous and robust reports with a flowing narrative, outlining debate, being interspersed with opinion, whilst highlighting research gaps
Draw on taught ‘best-practice’ in industry and academia to write reproducible code and analytical workflows to obtain, wrangle, and analyse data

Transferable skills

Work in a team from diverse educational and international backgrounds in achieving a common goal
Evaluate and make decisions at all stages of the typical spatial data science workflow in creating meaningful and robust outputs
Effectively source, wrangle, and analyse data, and appropriately communicate the results based on the intended audience
Realistically solve problems based on the available data, resources, and expertise
Write balanced and concise reports that consider available evidence — and its limitations — in reaching recommendations
Lead and manage an independent research project, in turn demonstrating time management, critical evaluation, ethical consideration and appropriate statistical methodologies