Key facts

Overview

The admissions cycle for 2013 is now open. Due to the demand for places applicants are strongly recommended to apply in advance of the application deadline. Click here for How to Apply.

The University of Oxford’s MSc in Sustainable Urban Development offers a worldview of sustainability and urban resilience aiming on linking research to policy and practice. The course provides meaningful, up-to-date learning to enhance your professional development and opportunities in a global interdisciplinary context led by industry and academic expertise.

Taught part-time across two years, students attend eight intensive week-long teaching sessions in both Oxford and London in addition to online and independent learning.

Delivered in partnership with the Prince's Foundation for Building Community and recognised by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, the MSc is aimed at a global professional community seeking to advance in sectors encompassing planning, construction, and development toward a sustainable future.

Hear what our students have to say (links to YouTube).

Read our FAQ or get in touch on msud@conted.ox.ac.uk or +44 (0)1865 286953

Who is it for?

As a multi-disciplinary part-time course, the MSc is aimed at professionals worldwide operating across a spectrum of specialisms.

Our student intake is global. Students have joined us from the UK, Azerbaijan, Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, Ireland, Kenya, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, Spain, and the USA.

"Led by top experts from a variety of fields, the course allows professionals to invest in their continuing education at the highest level of excellence without the need to postpone their career plans and professional commitments."

First year student from Brazil, working as commercial and business development manager

Professionals recently represented include architects, consultants, educators, engineers, environmental lawyers, land economists, land managers, planners, property developers, and surveyors, as well as those working in finance. Increasingly the course attracts recent graduates with relevant work experience through internships.

Such a richly diverse group adds a further high-value dimension to students’ learning and professional development through knowledge sharing and networking

"I get the chance to meet people from different professional backgrounds and learn from their experiences. Also, I find the rich mix of contributors to the MSUD course interesting, effective and helpful. The events during module days, such as dinners, seminar series and guest lectures, enrich my learning, and are also very useful for socializing with people outside the classroom, and enhancing networks."

Second year student from Azerbaijan, working as an advisor in the Chemicals industry.

Description

“With more than half of the world’s population now living in urban areas,” Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations, declares that “this is the urban century.”

This figure is set to increase to 60% of the global population by 2030, and up to 70% by the middle of this century (UN-Habitat 2012); planners and decision-makers therefore are faced with the urgent task of negotiating complex and challenging urban demands while simultaneously incorporating shared concerns for the social, economic and environmental well-being of urban communities.

The MSc offers an approach that is both focused and holistic rooted in the idea of sustainable development that includes science, business development, trade, human development, values, and differences in cultures and genders.

Features

• School of Geography and The Environment
• Transport Studies Unit
• Faculty of Law
• Politics and International Relations
• Said Business School
• and the recently launched Oxford Programme for the Future of Cities

Typically there are six to eight weeks between each teaching session, during which students should expect to spend an average of between 10 to 15 hours per week on independent study. This allows international students and students working full-time to manage their learning flexibly.

Students and tutors are linked through the course's online portal. Not only does this operate as a key communications tool for project and group-based work, helping lay the foundation for an online academic community, but it also provides remote access to essential course materials.

Throughout the course, students have full access to the University's Bodleian Libraries (including e-books, journals, and extensive databases).

What do our students say?

"My learning will allow me to make a contribution to the built environment that is more relevant, sensible and whole"

First year student from India, with 20 years’ experience in architectural design

"I’ve been a practitioner on a global scale for over six years and the ability to develop a strong academic foundation will simply allow me to develop better development solutions in the future. The course is unique in two ways. Firstly it's designed to cope with the time demands of current leaders in the field, who can participate whilst still doing the "day job". Secondly, the links with the Prince’s Foundation for Building Community and RICS add a unique and powerful perspective to the course."

Second year student from the UK, working as a brownfield regeneration manager in the Petroleum industry

Programme details

The Programme has been carefully structured so as to be accessible for international students and for busy working professionals. Face-to-face teaching is offered via eight themed week-long teaching sessions. These will:

• introduce, analyse and synthesise the key elements of a particular subject area
• enable students to combine study with full-time work effectively

Commencing in October, the MSc runs for two years (five teaching weeks in Year 1; 3 in Year 2). Two of the eight teaching weeks are held at the offices of the Prince's Foundation for Building Community in Shoreditch, London. The remaining six are held in Oxford at the Department for Continuing Education.

The current eight teaching themes are as follows:

• Concepts of the City and Environmental Change
• Climate Change and the Built Environment
• Place-making
• Financing Sustainability
• Transport and Sustainability
• Urbanism and the Design Process
• Urbanisation in the Global South
• The Flexible City? Urban Theory, Practice and Project Management

Further description of these teaching themes can be found here: MSc in Sustainable Urban Development Teaching Themes

Selection criteria

Staff

Dr David Howard

Role: Director

Dr David Howard is a University Lecturer in Sustainable Urban Development and Fellow of ...moreKellogg College. He was previously a Senior Lecturer in the Institute of Geography at the University of Edinburgh, following postdoctoral research at the University of Oxford, the City University of New York and the University of Melbourne.

David’s principal research has concentrated on the contemporary urban societies of the Caribbean and Latin America, with a specific focus on urban livelihoods, social sustainability and identity politics. His interests lie at the interface between social and urban geography, and postcolonial and development studies. Recent research projects have concentrated on empirical work in the Dominican Republic and Jamaica, and on the theoretical links between urban territory, crime and discrimination. He is currently working with archaeologists and anthropologists from the City University of New York and the University of the West Indies as part of a National Science Foundation project to assess long-term environmental and societal transition in the Caribbean.

Outwith the University, he is a CNRS Associate at the Centre d’Étude d’Afrique Noire, Université de Bordeaux IV, and the Co–ordinating Editor for the Bulletin of Latin American Research and an associated Wiley–Blackwell book series. As Chair of the Society for Caribbean Studies, he co–directs the Joint Initiative for the Study of Latin America and the Caribbean (JISLAC), which supports multidisciplinary seminar networks and seed grants for new research, and sits on the Latin America and Caribbean Panel at the British Academy.

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Dr Idalina Baptista

Role: Tutor

Dr Idalina Baptista is the Sir Nigel Mobbs Research Fellow for the Oxford Programme for the Future of Cities, University of Oxford. Her research...more focuses on the theoretical and practical challenges of contemporary urban governance through transnational comparative fieldwork in Southern Europe, Africa, and Latin America. Idalina holds a PhD in City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley. close

Dr David Dodman

Role: Tutor

Dr David Dodman is a Senior Researcher at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)...more where he is team leader for institutional objectives on 'Cities and Climate Change' and 'Research Quality'. He holds a B.Sc. in Environmental Biology and Geography from the University of St Andrews, and a D.Phil. in Geography from the University of Oxford. Prior to joining IIED he was a Lecturer in Geography at the University of the West Indies (Mona, Jamaica). David’s research has been published in peer-reviewed journals including Area, Cities, Environment and Urbanization, Geographical Journal, International Development Planning Review, Local Environment, Progress in Development Studies, and Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography; he has co-edited special issues of Caribbean Geography and Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability; and he is a member of the editorial boards for Environment and Urbanization and the International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development. He is the co-editor of 'Global Change and Caribbean Vulnerability: Environment, Economy and Society at Risk' (Kingston, UWI Press) and 'Adapting Cities to Climate Change: understanding and addressing the development challenge' (London, Earthscan). David has worked with partners in low- and middle-income countries including Bangladesh, Jamaica, the Philippines, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. He is a College Teaching Fellow at University College London, and a Lead Author on the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

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Dr Matthew Hardy

Role: Tutor

Dr Matthew Hardy is an architect and architectural historian. Matthew trained as an architect at the University of Adelaide, South Australia,...more holds a PhD in architectural history from the University of Wales, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. His PhD research, based at the Prince of Wales's Institute of Architecture, London, was a study of Hippocratic attitudes to climate and their influence on house planning in the classical tradition. He was the founding Secretary of the International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture & Urbanism, and was tasked with the early development of INTBAU from its instigation as a research project in late 2000, and served as Secretary from February 2001 until March 2009, when he became Senior Lecturer in Architecture & Urbanism, a role he shared between INTBAU and The Prince's Foundation for Building Conmmunity.

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Dr Karen Lucas

Role: Tutor

Dr Karen Lucas co-ordinates academic delivery of the Transport & Sustainability teaching week for the MSc. Sustainable Urban Development. She is a...more senior research fellow at Transport Studies Unit at the University of Oxford, which she joined in 2008. Karen holds a BSc Social Sciences (1st Class Honours) from South Bank University (1994) and a PhD in environmental policy from the University of Greenwich (1998).

Over the past ten years, Karen has established an international reputation for her pioneering research looking at the role of transport in social exclusion and has presented and published extensively on this topic. She is also Review Editor for the Journal of Transport Geography, Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and an elected committee member of its Transport Geography Researchers Group (TGRG).

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Dr Nigel Mehdi

Role: Tutor

Dr Nigel Mehdi is a Visiting Fellow at the Spatial Economics Research Centre, London School of Economics. He is a Chartered Surveyor, working as a...more consultant in private practice. close

Assessment methods

For each teaching theme students must satisfactorily complete an essay on a topic chosen by the course director or suggested by the student with approval.

For four of the themes the essay is a maximum of 3,000 words in length; for the others, an essay is submitted of up to a maximum length of 5,000 words.

MSc students are required to submit a dissertation of up to 15,000 words in length. It is expected that the student will define their own dissertation topic in consultation with the course director and will engage in self-motivated research throughout their time on the course towards this. Please click here for the range of proposals submitted last year by our students.

Accommodation

The Department offers a full residential and catering facility, with a range of both 3 and 4-star campus accommodation. 'Number 12', our recently refurbished Victorian on Wellington Square, right next to Rewley House, offers 9 superior en-suite bedrooms.

Accommodation costs are not included in course fees. All students can take advantage of the excellent dining facilities and common room bar, where they may relax and network with others on the programme. See CONTED's web site for more detail.

Scholarships

Please see the University's Fees and Funding pages for help and information with regard to funding your studies. We further recommend that you search for funding opportunities via the online Fees, Funding and Scholarship search tool.

The Sustainable Urban Development Programme is pleased to be able to offer a scholarship opportunity to an outstanding candidate from India starting the course in October 2013. Candidates should be able to present a consistent record of excellence both academically and professionally. The Scholarship lasts for the full duration of the MSc (2 years, part-time), and covers all tuition fees (University and College fees). The Scholar is expected to cover any travel/maintenance costs incurred. Click here for full details, eligibility and criteria. The deadline for application is 9 March 2013.

Applications received before the 18 January 2013 'gathered field' deadline will be considered for a Clarendon Fund scholarship. Awards are made based on academic excellence and potential across all subject areas, enabling the most distinguished scholars to study at the University of Oxford. By applying for graduate study at the University of Oxford you automatically be considered for a Clarendon Scholarship, so you do not need to complete additional documentation. All Clarendon Scholarships cover tuition and college fees in full, and include a generous grant for living expenses. For further details and eligibility criteria please visit the Clarendon Fund website.

External Opportunities

Aga Khan Foundation Scholarships are available to fund postgraduate studies for outstanding students from developing countries who have no other means of financing their studies. Scholarships are awarded on a 50 per cent grant, 50 per cent loan basis and may be used for tuition fees and living expenses only.

Closing date: 31 Mar 14
http://www.akdn.org/akf_scholarships.asp

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