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Landscape Architecture MA

London, Bloomsbury

This creative and reflective Master's degree considers interventions in the landscape through imaginative design, strategic thinking and technical knowledge. Landscape architects shape the future of cities and rural environments alike.

UK students International students
Study mode
Full-time
UK tuition fees (2025/26)
£16,000
Overseas tuition fees (2025/26)
£36,500
Duration
1 academic year
Programme starts
September 2025
Applications accepted
Applicants who require a visa: 14 Oct 2024 – 04 Apr 2025
Applications close at 5pm UK time

Applications open

Applicants who do not require a visa: 14 Oct 2024 – 29 Aug 2025
Applications close at 5pm UK time

Applications open

Apply for this course

Entry requirements

A minimum of a second-class UK degree in landscape architecture or an accredited overseas qualification in Landscape Architecture of an equivalent standard. On occasion, graduates from other degrees who can demonstrate comparable abilities will also be considered. Applicants must have also completed their previous degree and be undertaking a year in a professional practice placement or internship. A design/creative portfolio is also expected. Applicants will be asked to provide a link to a portfolio of their design work once their completed application has been received, and should not send or upload work until it has been requested.

The English language level for this programme 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

This accredited Master's programme allows students to progress towards a career as a Chartered Landscape Architect. Students work to put their theories into practice from week one, researching through speculative design. 

The programme is committed to an agenda of climate-focused landscape design and environmental stewardship, preparing students to address sustainability and deal with real-world challenges such as biodiversity loss, climate change, and ecological crises. The core priority of the Landscape Architecture MA is to equip students with the skills and knowledge needed to innovatively respond to ecological, urban, and social challenges through their work with natural and built environments. 

The programme is design-led, and Design Studios form a core component, giving students the opportunity to work to develop their own approach to landscape architecture. Within the Studios, tutors present unique, rigorous, challenging, and even radical intellectual positions, providing a strong identity for students working individually and in groups, and exploring real-world environments during field and site study trips. 

Design teaching is complemented with history and theory lectures, seminars, and readings, examining the interdependence of thought, action, and form in history, society, culture, and geography. Students refine their communication skills through seminar presentations, written work, design reviews, and exhibitions. A series of workshops and classes are available to help students gain integral skills, from planting and horticulture to digital skills and GIS. An open lecture series and film nights, amongst other extra-curricular activities, enable students to engage with the broader relationships that surround their studies. 

Landscape Architecture is available to study via two different pathways at The Bartlett, taught over either one or two years: 

  • Our Landscape Architecture MA is taught full-time over one year, for students who already have a UK landscape architecture undergraduate degree, or an overseas qualification of an equivalent standard. 
  • Our Landscape Architecture MLA is taught full-time over two years, acting as a conversion programme for students without a landscape architecture undergraduate degree. Students typically come from related backgrounds such as geography, ecology, urban studies, architecture and other design-based disciplines. 

You can apply to the Landscape Architecture MLA here.

Who this course is for

This accredited programme is primarily suitable for students looking to pursue a career in landscape architecture and who have a UK Landscape Architecture first degree, or overseas equivalent. Students will possess a strong research and design background and a keen interest in innovatively responding to ecological, urban, and social challenges through their work with natural and built environments. This design programme is also relevant to early and mid-career professionals looking to expand their technical skills and knowledge and develop their own approach to the contemporary study of landscape architecture. 

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

What this course will give you

Students will work with a team of landscape architects, researchers and built environment professionals to inform their creative design practices. In the design studio, students will develop individual projects, documented in design portfolios, to increasing levels of complexity and ambition as the programme progresses, supported by tutorials, seminars, design reviews and presentations. 

This programme empowers students with the contextual knowledge of the history and theory of landscape architecture, alongside the ability to apply research to design and professional scenarios, be they speculative, theoretical or practical.  

The Bartlett School of Architecture helps students to prepare for successful careers in a range of fields. We aim to be an exciting and innovative place to study architecture, located in the heart of London with global perspectives. Our students have the opportunity to develop their creativity, curiosity and dynamism, and learn the skills they need to build a better future for people and the planet. Our school is consistently ranked highly in UK and global league tables, and our staff are at the forefront of international research and teaching with award-winning buildings all over the globe. 

The Bartlett is one of the UK's largest multidisciplinary faculties of the Built Environment. Our work is all about human spaces. That means physical structures like homes, buildings and cities, but also the invisible structures that govern these things: political and legal systems; financial frameworks and social norms; even our understanding of the past, present and future. Combining design, history, theory, digital representations and models across all of these areas, we understand the structures shaping society today – and we work to make them fairer and more prosperous. 

The Bartlett is ranked #1 in the world for Architecture and the Built Environment for the second year in a row in the QS World University Subject Rankings 2024, and #1 in the UK for Architecture in The Guardian University Guide 2025. In addition to this, 91% of its research has been deemed ‘World Leading’ and ‘Internationally Excellent’ in the latest Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021).

Find out more about the benefits of studying at The Bartlett School of Architecture.

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

The foundation of your career

Students gain a highly specialist skill set as well as the ability to design using a range of techniques and research methods. Developing an in-depth knowledge of the discipline of landscape architecture, students will develop skills in creative problem solving, making decisions and propositions in complex, challenging, ambiguous and open-ended situations. 

Students will also develop skills in communicating, presenting, advocating, interrelating and responding to people from a wide variety of backgrounds within a professional context. Many graduates continue into professional practice with Landscape Architecture firms in the UK or their home country. A degree in Landscape Architecture can also lead to employment in related fields such as environmental design, landscape management and built environment policy-making as well as other design-related fields.

93.3% of Bartlett School of Architecture graduates were in work or further study 15 months after graduation (Graduate Outcomes Surveys 2017-21).

Top industry sectors for Bartlett School of Architecture graduates in work are construction, built environment and property (68% of graduates); performance and creative arts (7%); academic research and higher education (6%) and technology (6%).

Bartlett School of Architecture graduates are working in 52 countries around the world.

Employability

The Bartlett School of Architecture is recognised as one of the world's leading schools of architecture and graduates from our Master's programmes are highly sought after. 

Networking

The Bartlett School of Architecture hosts numerous events throughout the year that feature industry guests and networking opportunities. These include lecture series, seminars, conferences, symposiums, book launches, and show launch events. The school also hosts a Future Practice event each year that links students with employers. 

Additionally, there are a broad range of university-wide career events to help current students and recent graduates develop their employability skills, explore different sectors, increase commercial awareness, build professional networks and more.

Accreditation

This programme is professionally accredited by the Landscape Institute (LI).

Teaching and learning

The programme is a balance of design, history and critical theory, technology, environment and practice streams and is delivered in lectures, seminars, design reviews and tutorials in group and individual teaching sessions. 

Students are assessed through design portfolios, essays, illustrated reports and diaries.

In terms 1 and 2 students can typically expect between 17 and 20 contact hours per teaching week through lectures, workshops and tutorials. In term 3, and the summer term for Year 2 students, when most modules are complete students will be completing their major design projects, finalising portfolio production and review preparation whilst attending weekly design tutorials.

Outside of lectures, students typically study the equivalent of a full-time job, using their remaining time for self-directed study and completing coursework assignments.

Modules

This is a one year, 180-credit Master's degree. Upon successful completion you will be awarded a MA in Landscape Architecture. 

This programme has five modules, all of which are compulsory. The curriculum is designed to progressively build on previous knowledge and skills. Design projects increase in scale and complexity. History and theory modules evolve from a seminar series and short essay to a comprehensive thesis. Technology and environmental studies are introduced through a lecture series in the first term and are further developed in the second term through practical applications guided by specialized tutors, focusing on the realization of design projects. 

Students join one of seven design students each of which presents a particular agenda and site focus directed by a pair of tutors who are practising designers or academics working in Landscape Architecture and its related fields.

Compulsory modules







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 180 credits. Upon successful completion of 180 credits, you will be awarded an MA in Landscape Architecture.

Fieldwork

The programme includes an optional field trip that is taken with the design studio. This is typically a one-week trip based in a European or UK destination. Study trips are usually also the site for one or more of the design projects in the year. 

Accessibility

Details of the accessibility of UCL buildings can be obtained from AccessAble. Further information can also be obtained from the UCL Student Support and Wellbeing Services team.

Visit us

All open days and events

22 Gordon Street, London, WC1H 0QB - Open day

Graduate Open Events: The Bartlett Postgraduate In-Person Open Evening

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Join us for an open evening at The Bartlett. Explore our graduate courses, discuss your options with academic staff, learn about scholarship opportunities and hear from our current students and alumni.

Fees and funding

Fees for this course

UK students International students
Fee description Full-time
Tuition fees (2025/26) £16,000
Tuition fees (2025/26) £36,500

The tuition fees shown are for the year indicated above. Fees for subsequent years may increase or otherwise vary. Where the programme 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 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.

Additional costs to the student for materials and resources can be up to £500.

Landscape Architecture students can expect to incur additional costs as part of their programme; however, the school aims to minimise these where possible. All students work differently so costs incurred depend on the approach they take to the brief given and tutors can advise on alternative methods. The school encourages students to use recycled materials in their models and presentations – not only is it sustainable, but also cost effective and potentially innovative.

For the optional field trip, the school offers a financial contribution of up to £250 a year to each student. Students are asked to fund the remaining costs of the trip which should not exceed £700 in total. 

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 £114.50. This price was published by TfL in 2024. 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

UCL offers a range of financial awards aimed at assisting both prospective and current students with their 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.

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: 28 March 2025
Value: Fees, stipend and other allowances (Duration of programme)
Criteria Based on financial need
Eligibility: EU, Overseas

Bartlett Promise UK Master's Scholarship

Deadline: 31 May 2025
Value: Tuition fees plus £15,864 maintenance/yr (Duration of programme)
Criteria Based on financial need
Eligibility: UK

UCL East London Scholarship

Deadline: 26 June 2025
Value: Tuition fees plus £16,000 stipend ()
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 programme 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 Landscape Architecture at graduate level
  • why you want to study Landscape Architecture at UCL
  • what particularly attracts you to this programme
  • how your personal, academic and professional background meets the demands of a challenging academic environment
  • 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.

After we have received your application, we will e-mail you to request a design portfolio and provide instructions. Please do not send your design work until requested.

We recommend that you apply for a maximum of two programmes.

Tier 4 Student Visa holders are advised to meet the English language proficiency of their offer no later than the end of June, in order to allow sufficient time to obtain a CAS number and visa.

To accept your offer, you must pay the non-refundable fee deposit within 4 weeks and decline any other offers for programmes at the Bartlett School of Architecture. If you do not respond within 3 weeks, your offer will be withdrawn.

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

Choose your programme

Please read the Application Guidance before proceeding with your application.

Year of entry: 2025-2026

Apply for this course

Got questions? Get in touch

Bartlett School of Architecture
Bartlett School of Architecture

emma.colthurst.11@ucl.ac.uk

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