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City Planning MPlan

London, Bloomsbury

UK students International students

Study mode

Full-time

UK tuition fees (2026/27)

£16,800

Overseas tuition fees (2026/27)

£29,500

Duration

22 months

Programme starts

September 2026

Applications accepted

Applicants who require a visa: 20 Oct 2025 – 26 Jun 2026

Applications close at 5pm UK time

Applications open

Applicants who do not require a visa: 20 Oct 2025 – 28 Aug 2026

Applications close at 5pm UK time

Applications open

Apply for this course

Entry requirements

A minimum of an upper second-class Bachelor's degree from a UK university or an overseas qualification of an equivalent standard is required.

The English language level for this course is: Level 2

UCL Pre-Master's and Pre-sessional English courses are for international students who are aiming to study for a postgraduate degree at UCL. The courses will develop your academic English and academic skills required to succeed at postgraduate level.

Further information can be found on our English language requirements page.

Equivalent qualifications

Country-specific information, including details of when UCL representatives are visiting your part of the world, can be obtained from the International Students website.

International applicants can find out the equivalent qualification for their country by selecting from the list below. Please note that the equivalency will correspond to the broad UK degree classification stated on this page (e.g. upper second-class). Where a specific overall percentage is required in the UK qualification, the international equivalency will be higher than that stated below. Please contact Graduate Admissions should you require further advice.

About this degree

Our two-year, full-time, accredited City Planning MPlan is a principle- and theory-driven course, providing you with a conceptual understanding of planning principles and the skills needed to build a career in planning and the built environment. You learn to think creatively and analytically across different spatial scales, from strategic to local levels, and across urban design, city planning, place-making, real estate, and sustainability. Engaging in case studies and fieldwork deepens your practical experience. By the end of the degree, you will have a solid understanding of managing both built and natural environments.

During your studies you:

Learn about professional planning practices, systems, cultures, sustainability and the pillars of planning.
Gain a comprehensive understanding of urban design, planning research, and planning and environmental law.
Experience practice- and studio-based modules, developing strategic plans for urban areas.
Investigate national planning systems and approaches, identifying key analytical themes and challenges unique to different contexts.
Explore contemporary planning issues and debates through discussions with practitioners.
Delve into live planning challenges during fieldtrips and site visits. Follow our current students' trips on our Instagram @mplancity.
Explore your own interests, choosing from a range of specialist elective modules in: Infrastructure Planning; Investigating Urban Transformation in Historic Cities; Planning for Housing; Planning for Sustainability, Climate Change and Inclusion; Planning for Urban Design; Smart City Theory and Practice; Sustainable Development Themes and Goals; or Urban Regeneration.
Choose to study abroad or take a workplace placement with one of our partners.
Earn a degree accredited the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI).

Who this course is for

This planning degree is ideal for those wishing to get into planning practice, research or consultancy. Typical academic backgrounds include, but are not limited to, architecture, planning, urban design, landscape, real estate or civil engineering. We consider students from any academic background with a demonstrable interest in planning.

Read about what it takes to study for a Master's at UCL

What this course will give you

A world-class, research-led education
The Bartlett School of Planning has been at the forefront of planning research and teaching for more than 100 years. You will learn from our urban experts, including Course Director Dr Juliana Martins, who are shaping city planning practice and policy through their work. Our faculty, The Bartlett, is ranked #1 for Built Environment studies in the world (QS World University Rankings 2025). The Bartlett is also where the UK’s most ‘World Leading’ and ‘Internationally Excellent’ built environment research is undertaken (REF 2021).

Immerse yourself in London
London is ranked the best city for students in the UK and Europe, and holds third place worldwide (QS Best Student Cities 2026). With our campus in the heart of the city, you are surrounded by opportunities to study the complexities of contemporary urban design and planning.

Build your career in planning
Through hands-on learning, including a field trip, site visits and project work, you will gain the skills and knowledge required to excel in your future job. Experience from the study abroad or work placements module will help shape your career. From enrolment, through to three years after graduating you can also access UCL Careers to support your goals.

Read about what you'll get out of a graduate programme

Making an impact

Two people wearing high viz jackets attending to a wall bullied with small hearts in London, memorialising people who died during the COVID-19 pandemic

Podcast: Planning fairer cities for global crises

Our researchers explore how urban planners can tackle societal inequalities and build resilience in the face of crises like COVID-19.

The foundation of your career

95% of master's graduates from The Bartlett School of Planning were in employment or further study within 15 months of further study (HESA Graduate Outcomes Survey).

They are now working in 46 countries around the world in careers across:

Local and central government
Charities
International co-operation agencies
Community development
Academia
Consultancy
Research and academic institutions involved in the transport, energy, retailing and housing sectors, as well as in urban, regional and environmental planning.

The City Planning MPlan equips students with in-demand skills for a wide range of careers. Graduates are highly sought after by public and private employers in the UK and abroad.

Our alumni have gone on to roles with the Greater London Authority, Buro Happold, Atkins, Prior + Partners, Stantec, Connected Places Catapult, London boroughs, and international municipalities.

Learn more about careers in urban planning and our alumni careers ►

London was a great place to be a city planning student! Not only was I living in a massive urban laboratory, but the cultural offerings were fab.

Stephanie Goldberg

City Planning MPlan graduate, Strategic Planner at the Greater London Authority after graduation

Learn more about Stephanie's experience

Employability

You will gain many transferable skills required to build your career in planning and the built environment. These include:

Report writing
Urban design skills
Use of a range of software for urban design and planning
Presentations

Support is available from UCL Careers and our careers specialist in The Bartlett School of Planning to explore your options, build valuable skills, showcase your practical experience, and navigate the job application process. This includes various events and training tailored to the industry, such as alumni and industry insight panels, career taster sessions, masterclasses, careers fairs and more.

Learn more about careers support for planning students ►

Networking

There are many networking opportunities throughout your course. We encourage and give opportunity for students to engage with practitioners, alumni, and academic guests through seminars, events, site visits, and workshops. We also have socials and events specifically for City Planning MPlan students to get to know each other, complemented with opportunities to engage with students and staff from across The Bartlett School of Planning.

Accreditation

The course is fully accredited by the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI). No further academic qualifications are required to progress to RTPI Licentiate Membership.

Teaching and learning

From module to module, depending on your choices, you may learn through studio teaching, formal lectures, analytical modelling, small-group tutorials and discussion, formal presentations, and field trips and site visits.

You will have assessments throughout your degree including individual and group work, essays, project work, presentations, and – in some instances – exams. In addition, the dissertation will test your ability to develop and implement a large-scale piece of research.

In Term 1 and Term 2 full-time students can typically expect between 8 and 15 contact hours per teaching week through lectures, workshops and tutorials. Outside of this, students complete self-directed study and coursework assignments for 25 to 30 hours per week. In Term 3 of Year 2, students will be completing their own dissertation research, whilst keeping regular contact with their dissertation supervisors for regular feedback.

Modules

Your two years of study on the City Planning MPlan are structured as follows:

Term 1 (October–December, Year 1)

Spatial Planning: Concepts and Contexts
Urban Design: Place Making
Pillars of Planning: Economics
Elective module (choice of modules from The Bartlett School of Planning and Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis)

Term 2 (January–March, Year 1)

Planning Practice
Plan Making Studio I
Pillars of Planning: Politics and Sociology
Elective module (choice of modules from The Bartlett School of Planning and Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis)

Term 3 (April–May, Year 1)

Exam period

Term 1 (October–December, Year 2)

Term 2 (January–March, Year 2)

Term 3 (April–May, Year 2)

Exam period
Dissertation in City Planning

Compulsory modules

Plan Making Studio I

Pillars of Planning B

Urban Design: Place Making

Pillars of Planning A

Comparative Planning Systems and Cultures

Introducing Planning and Environmental Law

Spatial Planning: Concepts and Contexts

Plan Making Studio II

Planning Practice

Dissertation in City Planning

Optional modules

Work Placement in City Planning

Study Abroad in City Planning

Please note that the list of modules given here is indicative. This information is published a long time in advance of enrolment and module content and availability are subject to change. Modules that are in use for the current academic year are linked for further information. Where no link is present, further information is not yet available.

Students undertake modules to the value of 300 credits. Upon successful completion of 300 credits, you will be awarded an MPlan in City Planning.

Fieldwork

Our course includes a residential field trip during which themes relevant to the course are explored in different place contexts. This is an opportunity for you to consider built environment issues in real world settings and network as a course community. The cost of travel and accommodation for the field trip are covered by UCL although students need to cover meals and other personal expenses.

Placement

Term 2 of Year 2 is spent either as study abroad or in an industry placement.

Accessibility

The department will endeavour to make reasonable adjustments for students with disabilities, including those with long-term health conditions, neurodivergence, learning differences and mental health conditions. This list is not exhaustive. If you're unsure of your eligibility for reasonable adjustments at UCL, please contact Student Support and Wellbeing Services.

Reasonable adjustments are implemented on a case-by-case basis. With the student's consent, reasonable adjustments are considered by UCL Student Support and Wellbeing Services, and where required, in collaboration with the respective department.

Details of the accessibility of UCL buildings can be obtained from AccessAble. Further information about support available can be obtained from UCL Student Support and Wellbeing Services.

For more information about the department and accessibility arrangements for your course, please contact the department.

Visit us

All open days and events

Online - Open day

Discover Postgraduate Study at the Bartlett School of Planning

Join the Bartlett School of Planning (BSP) for an online taster session introducing our postgraduate programmes and giving insight into studying planning at UCL.

Watch on demand event

Online - Open day

Graduate Open Events: Bartlett Promise UK Scholarship

Join our virtual event to explore our postgraduate courses, hear from academic staff and current students, and learn about the application process, scholarships, and career support. A live Q&A will give you the chance to get your questions answered. Take the next step toward shaping a more sustainable built environment with us.

Watch on demand event

Fees and funding

Fees for this course

UK students International students

Fee description	Full-time
Tuition fees (2026/27)	£16,800
Tuition fees (2026/27)	£29,500

The programme is 300 credits in total. The full-time fee quoted is for Year 1 only (150 credits).

Postgraduate Taught students benefit from a cohort guarantee, meaning that their tuition fees will not increase during the course of the programme, but UCL reserves the right to increase tuition fees to reflect any sums (including levies, taxes, or similar financial charges) that UCL is required to pay any governmental authority in connection with tuition fees.

The tuition fees shown are for the year indicated above. Where the course is offered on a flexible/modular basis, fees are charged pro-rata to the appropriate full-time Master's fee taken in an academic session. Further information on fee status, fee increases and the fee schedule can be viewed on the UCL Students website: ucl.ac.uk/students/fees.

Additional costs

For full-time and part-time offer holders with a fee status classification of UK, a fee deposit will be charged at 2.5% of the first year fee.

For full-time and part-time offer holders with a fee status classification of Overseas, a fee deposit will be charged at 10% of the first year fee.

Further information can be found in the Tuition fee deposits section on this page: Tuition fees.

This course includes one field trip. Travel and accommodation (including breakfast) for the trip will be covered by UCL, however students will need to cover the costs for visas, other daily meals and any other personal expenses. The exact costs will depend on the location and prevailing exchange rates; however, it is estimated that students would need to budget between £200 and £300.

During the course we will also attend site visits across London. Students will need to pay for their own transport to sites. Based on visits last year you should expect to budget up to £60 across the year to access sites by public transport. Sites are always within the TFL travel zones.

The option to study at a partner university or take a UK work placement incurs no extra cost but students will be expected to pay for their own travel costs.

For in-person teaching, UCL’s main teaching locations are in zones 1 (Bloomsbury) and zones 2/3 (UCL East). The cost of a monthly 18+ Oyster travel card for zones 1-2 is £119.90. This price was published by TfL in 2025. For more information on additional costs for prospective students and the cost of living in London, please view our estimated cost of essential expenditure at UCL's cost of living guide.

Funding your studies

In our faculty, The Bartlett Promise Scholarship aims to enable students from backgrounds underrepresented in the built environment to pursue master's studies. Please see the UK Master's scholarship and Sub-Saharan Africa Master's scholarship pages for more information on eligibility criteria, selection process and FAQs.

We have given an over view of other funding options you may be eligible for on the Bartlett School of Planning and The Bartlett websites.

For a comprehensive list of the funding opportunities available at UCL, including funding relevant to your nationality, please visit the Scholarships and Funding website.

See all the ways you can fund your studies

: Bartlett Promise Sub-Saharan Africa Masters Scholarship

Deadline: 29 March 2026

Value: Fees, stipend and other allowances (Duration of programme)

Criteria Based on financial need

Eligibility: Overseas

Bartlett Promise UK Master's Scholarship

Deadline: 31 May 2026

Value: Full tuition fees and an annual stipend of £17,096 for a 12 month master's or £15,864 for a 9 month (Duration of programme)

Criteria Based on financial need

Eligibility: UK

Next steps

Students are advised to apply as early as possible due to competition for places. Those applying for scholarship funding (particularly overseas applicants) should take note of application deadlines.

There is an application processing fee for this course of £90 for online applications. Further information can be found at Application fees.

When we assess your application we would like to learn:

why you want to study City Planning at graduate level
why you want to study City Planning at UCL
what particularly attracts you to the chosen programme
how your academic and professional background meets the demands of this challenging programme
where you would like to go professionally with your degree

Together with essential academic requirements, the personal statement is your opportunity to illustrate whether your reasons for applying to this programme match what the programme will deliver.

To support you in the application process we’ve written a guide on writing a personal statement for an urban planning degree.

Please note that you may submit applications for a maximum of two graduate courses (or one application for the Law LLM) in any application cycle.

This course requires two references. Further information regarding references can be found on this Selecting your references page.

Choose your programme

Please read the Application Guidance before proceeding with your application.