Urban Planning

Urban planning is the professional discipline responsible for shaping how towns and cities develop, how land is used, how infrastructure is provided, and how communities are designed to support healthy, sustainable, and equitable lives. Cities around the world face growing pressures from climate change, rising sea levels, population growth, and economic change, and the planning profession is at the heart of society's response to these challenges. Urban planners work across physical design, environmental protection, community engagement, housing policy, transport strategy, and economic development, translating complex and sometimes competing demands into coherent frameworks for how places should grow and change.

At Loughborough University, this four-year full-time programme develops your knowledge of planning law, spatial planning theory, urban design, environmental impact assessment, sustainable development, housing, transport, and the policy frameworks that govern planning in the UK and internationally. You will engage with the real challenges facing cities and regions, developing the analytical and professional skills to contribute to planning practice in public and private sector settings. Loughborough's strong connections with the planning profession and its location in a region with a range of planning challenges provide a grounding in the realities of contemporary practice.

With a typical entry tariff of 136 UCAS points, this degree leads to a qualification that can support professional accreditation through the Royal Town Planning Institute, the professional body for planners in the UK. Graduates work as town planners, spatial planners, urban designers, development managers, transport planners, housing policy officers, environmental planners, and consultants in local authorities, government agencies, major infrastructure bodies, and private consultancies. Many continue to postgraduate study in planning, urban design, environmental management, or housing, and some progress to chartership with the RTPI.