Why Study Urban Studies and Planning?

urban studies and planning are subjects relevant to a huge range of challenges that we face in the world today and we offer three degrees that allow you to study those in slightly different formats and different degrees of flexibility the subject matter itself is getting more and more relevant more and more today we see in the news issues related to planning and urban studies and they're not going to go away climate change and the need to address it they need to build climate resilient and climate proof cities is growing day by day issues around high-speed rail infrastructure projects energy how we produce energy through wind power or solar power other kinds of energy project which create big political debates in the UK and abroad these are questions of planning and these are urgent things that need addressing in the years to come and it's not just about the UK and indeed Europe it's about the whole world we now live in a world where over 50% of the global population lives in cities in urban areas so part of the world we used to think of of being quite rural are now urbanized and there are huge challenges around slums around urban poverty around public health around the environment in these areas that need addressing so by studying urban studies and planning you're entering into a world of subjects matter that will only grow in significance in years to come within all of our degrees as well as international field trips and all of the other academic content there's also a lot of project work and practical skills built in to really equip you for the workplace so for example in your first year you will go into a former industrial area of Sheffield and think about how that area might need to be developed in a place where currently there's nothing really happening so Sheffield contains within the city lots of very fascinating areas that are yet to be fully redeveloped or fully developed at all and we take students there help them engage with communities talk to professional people to think about how those urban areas it can be redeveloped we offer three different degree programs one is our professional planner route which is a four-year integrated master's in urban studies and planning that degree not only gives you an academic qualification including a masters but also a professionally accredited qualification recognized by the Royal town planning inst to help you go into the field of planning practice straightaway after you graduate we also have a three year degree in urban studies which is a much more flexible approach to the study of cities that builds in a lot a lot more capacity for you to take options in other departments in the social sciences as well as within our own department and finally we have a three year joint degree talk with the Geography Department in geography and planning this enables you to focus and contextualize your interests in cities in a broader Geographic context so that's really a degree for people who are interested in geography and don't necessarily want to let go of the broader study of geography but also want to get more of that specific urban skills and expertise that that you might need going into the profession as a planner or any other urban development specialist in our department graduate employability is excellent and has been so over the past five years we're consistently on average are over 90 percent of our graduates find jobs within six months of leaving us my role is about ensuring students graduate with a set of skills achievements and personal attributes that make them more likely to gain employment and become successful in their chosen occupations and the three key three key aspects that I focus on in my job on a day to day basis the first is engaging with employers and other professional organizations to ensure that our students have the relevant and up-to-date skill sets that will be required of them when they start engaging in the job market the second is to engage with our alumni and draw on their experience and advice and the third is about embedding employability across the curriculum through developing initiatives talks and a program of events and even embedding employability through developing new teaching practices

Channel: USPSheffield

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Keywords: Urban Studies, Planning (Quotation Subject), Urban Planning (Field Of Study), Undergraduate Degree (Degree), University Of Sheffield (College/University), University (Building Function), Environmentalism (Political Ideology), City (Type Of Fictional Setting)

Id: 5pWTuFuvaMg

Length: 4min 0sec (240 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 08 2015