Inside Health in Urban Development MSc

About the Health in Urban Development MSc

By studying the Health in Urban Development MSc, you will gain cutting-edge, interdisciplinary knowledge and skills at the nexus of urban development planning and public health, preparing you to become a socially sensitive urban health practitioner. You will learn to connect physical and mental health with urban development planning across systems of governance (institutions), the built environment (land and infrastructure), and the social sphere (communities). 

You will also develop integrated responses to key 21st-century challenges, including urban inequality, informality, and environmental risks in the context of a changing climate. 

Upon completion of the course, you will be able to: 

• Comprehend the positive and negative effects of urbanisation processes in both the Global South and Global North on physical and mental health, and understand the root causes of intra-urban health disparities and their determinants.
• Appreciate the critical role of urban development planning and public health in protecting and improving the health of urban populations, with attention to diverse groups of women and men, boys and girls.
• Analyse the interactions between key aspects of urban living - such as housing, transport, green space, food, infrastructure, and livelihoods - and their impacts on human health and life-supporting local and global ecosystems.
• Evaluate and design intervention strategies that foster healthy urban communities through multi-scalar action, from the international and national levels to the city, neighbourhood, household, and individual scales.