Program Overview

Urban Design Postgraduate Diploma

Overview

The Urban Design Postgraduate Diploma is a two-year part-time course that equips students with the knowledge and skills needed to participate in the rapidly expanding profession of urban design. The course has a strong vocational focus and an excellent reputation within the industry.

Course Structure

The course consists of 120 credits, with students taking a total of six modules. The modules are:

• The Dynamic City: Urban Design and Planning in Context (20 credits)
• Urban Form and Growth (20 credits)
• Urban Design and Development Process (20 credits)
• Urban Design Project (20 credits)
• Place and Experience in Design of Urban Spaces (20 credits)
• Urban Design Field Trip (no credits)

Core Modules

• The Dynamic City: Urban Design and Planning in Context
  • This module enables students to gain an insight into the relationship between urban design theory, practice, and local context.
  • Students investigate the city as networks and adjacencies; the intricate dynamics of movement, activity, information, ecology, and social interactions that frame the context of urban design interventions.
• Urban Form and Growth
  • This module concerns the physical and spatial form of cities at the urban design scale, realised in various geographical or historic contexts.
  • Students explore the basic fabric of urban form: buildings, streets, and spaces together with the forces that shape them.
• Urban Design and Development Process
  • This module allows students to undertake structured research in support of the urban design project module with particular reference to development context, governance, and the planning regime, and the development industry.
  • Students undertake a range of investigations, a simplified financial feasibility study, and develop knowledge of a range of building and other urban typologies to be used as design criteria as part of the design project.
• Urban Design Project
  • This is a design-based module enabling students to combine the learning undertaken in other modules and to evolve strategic concepts previously developed in other modules into detailed design positions.
  • The module is an individual site-based design project, allowing students to explore issues in a specific context and to generate original approaches, deploying urban space and built elements to meet stated aims in a comprehensive manner.
• Place and Experience in Design of Urban Spaces
  • This is a project-based module that examines the form, use, and experience of public space and the notions of perception, identity, diversity, place, place making, and place shaping.
  • Projects are used to critically assess the character of urban spaces and propose responsive design interventions.
• Urban Design Field Trip
  • A residential field trip normally undertaken in a European city over 5 or 6 days.
  • The trip provides an opportunity to analyse urban form, its evolution, the qualities of public spaces, how they are used, and what makes them successful or otherwise.

Option Modules

Students choose one option module to take. The available option modules are:

• Information Management Applications for Urban Planning
• Emerging Landscapes and Urban Ecologies
• Environmental Policy, Assessment, and Climate Change
• Conservation and Heritage
• Communities Towards Sustainability: Public Engagement
• Housing and Urban Regeneration
• Planning for Urban Risk and Resilience
• Sustainable Neighbourhood Development and Management
• International Spatial Planning Practice
• Streets, Places, and Active Transport
• Land Use Planning and Transport
• Destination Development: Case Study Perspective

Entry Requirements

• A minimum of a lower second-class honours degree (2:2) in architecture, landscape architecture, town planning, or another related discipline, together with practical or professional experience in their own field or in urban design.
• Applicants are required to submit a portfolio.
• If the first language is not English, applicants should have an IELTS 6.5 with at least 6.5 in writing and no element below 6.0.
• Applicants are required to submit one academic reference.

Fees and Funding

• UK tuition fee: £1,125 (Price per 20-credit module)
• International tuition fee: £1,785 (Price per 20-credit module)
• There are a range of funding available that may help students fund their studies, including Student Finance England (SFE) for UK students and various funding schemes for international students.
• The University is dedicated to supporting ambitious and outstanding students and offers a variety of scholarships to eligible postgraduate students.

Facilities

• The course benefits from links with a number of organisations, including the Design Council (formerly CABE), New London Architecture (NLA), The Design Review Panel, The Royal Town Planning Institute, and The Urban Design Group.
• The University's Marylebone Campus is home to the Westminster Business School and the Architecture, Planning, and Tourism courses.
• Specialist workshops, dedicated digital and architecture studios, and the extensive Marylebone Library offer students everything they need for academic success.

Research Groups

• The Max Lock Centre is a research group related to this course.

Teaching and Assessment

• Teaching methods focus on active student learning through lectures, seminars, workshops, problem-based and blended learning, and where appropriate practical application.
• The course includes a variety of assessments, which typically fall into three broad categories: written exams, practical, and coursework.
• The graphs below give an indication of what students can expect through approximate percentages, taken either from the experience of previous cohorts or based on the standard module diet where historic course data is unavailable.

Careers

• Graduates of this course typically find employment as urban designers in private consultancy or local authorities.
• Many find the course useful when developing careers in architecture, planning, or landscape architecture.
• The course has a strong vocational focus with a good reputation within the industry, and employment prospects are excellent for full-time students graduating from this course.
• Part-time students are usually already employed, and promotion and career enhancement usually follow soon after completion.

Why Study This Course?

• The course has a central London location, allowing students to interact with a huge variety of practitioners and organisations, as well as drawing on the city's huge range of resources.
• The course has outstanding facilities, including vibrant design studios and a cutting-edge Fabrication Laboratory.
• The course has an excellent course reputation, with the urban design course being one of the longest established in the UK.