Hi, again I would say surveying covers more commercial aspects of land use, planning doesn’t really cover commercial uses to any great extent.

Hi, the urban and regional planning course at Bham is so broad that is wouldn’t specifically look at re-use of closed gas stations. It prepares you to be a professional Town Planner though and deal with all kind of planning scenarios, including what you’re looking at. For instance, I am now working on a project looking at the re-use of a power station in my job, having studied the planning course. The main difference between planning courses and real estate courses is that the planning course is accredited by the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) which allows you to work as a professional planner. The real estate courses tend to be accredited by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and prepare you to be a professional surveyor. I hope that helps answer your question.

Hi, it varies a lot per career grade, but I’d say starting salaries are generally between £20k-£28k, mid career salaries circa £30-£50k and leadership salaries in the industry probably anything up to £100k. The RTPI releases a worker survey each year which is worth keeping your eye out for as it goes into this. You can also find information on salaries from many websites like Payscale. The following report is quite useful but conscious its from 2015 so slightly out of date: https://www.thatcherassociates.com/Media/Town%20Planning%20Salary%20Survey%202015.pdf

Hi, the training at Bham didn’t include GIS or other planning tools when I did the course (2010), but I am sure you can browse more up to date course content on their website as they may well have adapted this. Digital planning tools are becoming increasingly relevant, and although I don’t use them on a day to day basis in my job (it’s mainly still Word, Excel, Adobe and PPT for me!), I think this will change in the future and am certainly working with the digital teams in my organisation more (although I don’t need the technical skills of building the tools, I do need to understand how to use them more for my job). As for career prospects, I am not sure if you meant how you would fare if you moved here for work, or studying here but then working in your own country. Either way though, I imagine your prospects would be good. Certainly, over here, planners are very much in demand and in my organisation alone we of its overseas reputation but ie have many international employees, so I don’t think it would harm you and indeed might help you to bring valuable different perspective. As for the course, I am not sure of the course’s international reputation but University of Birmingham as a whole carries a good reputation generally so again studying here should be positive for career prospects overseas. Do follow up if you want to add more detail to your context to allow me to answer the question more fully, thanks!

Hi, in response to your questions:
1. I did find the course interesting and practical – many of the modules had classes with industry representatives that set tasks similar to what you have to do in the real world.
2. When I did the course it was 2 full days of contact (for full time).
3. Cullingworth and Nadin ‘Town and Country PLanning in the UK’.
4. I became a town planner for Arup after graduating – I’m still with them now. If you want to become a town planner the course will certainly give you great opportunities in this regard.

Hi, it is a difficult time to say what the career opportunities will be like because of the current pandemic. However, under normal circumstances, your career prospects would be very good. Birmingham has a great reputation and planning companies value its graduates. Pay for a Graduate Planner tends to vary quite considerably but I’d say its usually around £20-28k. I believe the RTPI has an annual career survey which probably provides more accurate information on pay than me! Hope this helps.

Hi, it would be worth checking with the department for up to date information but when I studied it was just two days full time and one day part time that you were required to be physically on campus. When I did the course those days were Mondays and Tuesdays, but I would just double check this is the case. With the price of train tickets you might still be financially better off living in Birmingham though! Good luck with your choice.

Hello, thank you very much for your question and apologies in the delay getting back to you. My name is Emma from the Postgraduate Recruitment team, and I am replying on behalf of the mentor as they have not yet answered it.

Unfortunately I don’t have detailed knowledge of the course content, but as the mentor has not replied to you, I would advise that you make an enquiry to the relevant team. At the bottom of the course page (https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/postgraduate/courses/taught/gees/urban-regional-planning.aspx) there is a ‘Make an enquiry’ button. Submitting a question there will send it to someone on the team, who will hopefully be able to help!

Best wishes,
PG Recruitment

Hi, apologies for the late reply on this. Lockdown with two young children plus full on work left me quite literally with no time! When I did the course you had to attend one day a week if part-time and two days if full time. Hope that helps.

Hi, I am not really aware of how they compare. All I can say is Birmingham has a great reputation and certainly served me well in terms of getting a job at the end. There are many companies in Birmingham with links to the course which helps to establish contacts and gain exposure to the local industry, but I went and worked in London after graduating so it doesn’t limit you to the local market either. I’d say go for what suits you personally and course content-wise as I think you’d have good job prospects going to either Bham or Newcastle. Hope that helps.

Hi, the course was 100% coursework when I did it, so it suited me as my exams were also not a strong point. It is a mixture of vocation and theory, but I’d say it’s mainly academic still. There are some good modules where industry people come in though to give you ‘real life’ tasks, so to speak, which I found really useful.

Hi,

For all our postgraduate courses there is no firm deadline for applications. However, courses are competitive and it can take up to eight weeks for applications to be processed so I would recommend applying as early as possible and before the start of June at the latest.

Best wishes,
Tom

Hi, it sounds like you are doing everything you can! I would just say study hard in the areas that interest you, do wider reading around urban design and smart cities if that is an area you want to specialise in (see Singapore as an excellent smart city case study) and try to get any work experience you can related to these areas.

I wanted a job in planning and a Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) accredited masters is necessary for a long term career in planning, as it provides the foundation for you to become chartered.

I think one of the biggest ways I grew was that I became so much more culturally aware. I was suddenly surrounded by people who took an interest in the world and this had not been the case where I grew up. This change in perspective really broadened my horizons and opened me up to opportunities that I don’t think I’d have otherwise thought were for people like me.

The main reason why I chose Birmingham is friendliness – I found the lecturers at Birmingham incredibly welcoming and helpful when I first visited on an open day that I was sold immediately. And this translated to the course too – they were always ready to lend an ear when it came to discussing content or advising on job opportunities – I felt as if I had a trusted mentor, something which I’d felt was missing from my undergraduate university.

I really enjoyed the module where we had to carry out a masterplanning task for Birmingham City Council as it gave you a great understanding of what it might be like to work as a planning consultant. What’s more, three years later I was involved in a masterplanning project with my company for the very same area, showing how practical and relevant our course had been!

My degree was directly related to my profession so it provided a solid foundation for my planning career. It provided a good balance of academic debate with practical application, especially as people working in the field were often integrated into the lecture programme. In particular, I loved that it used Birmingham as a case study for so much of what we were learning, it helped to see such things playing out in the city in reality.

Make sure you are passionate about the subject as planning projects are often long-term and the outcomes can take years to be realised.

On leaving Birmingham I joined Arup, an engineering and design consultancy, in their London office. I began as a Graduate Planner with a small role on a variety of projects. A big opportunity presented itself when we won a job to undertake a masterplan for Pretoria in South Africa. I was asked to transfer to our Johannesburg office and jumped at the chance – I lived there for almost a year and learned so much about planning in different contexts. On return, I was promoted to Senior Planner and have begun to manage my own planning projects.

Hi, I found Cullingworth and Nadin’s ‘Town and Country Planning in the UK’ really useful as an overall introduction to planning in the UK: https://amzn.to/2M9ClJA

Lots of people had it on my course too, it’s essential reading for any wannabe planner!

This book by Peter Hall is also great: https://amzn.to/2NTLZl7

And just an all time classic in the urban world generally, is Jane Jacob’s Life and Death of Great American Cities: https://amzn.to/2wRyQBV

Hope this helps!

Hi,
my advice would be to just show your passion for planning as much as possible. If you can demonstrate any work experience you have done that will show you are serious about pursuing planning as a career.

If your undergrad dissertation touched on planning /regeneration/ urban renewal etc I would mention/ discuss that to show that planning has always been of consideration.

I would also try to drop in a current issue that is topical in planning news to show you keep abreast of planning news. Looking at The Planner magazine, Guardian Cities or any type of related publication could give you some inspiration.

All in all, as long as you can show you are keen and have a genuine interest this will speak volumes! Good luck with your application.

Hi,
when I studied at Birmingham there wasn’t much financial support for the planning course specifically, it was all dealt with via the university centrally. I’m afraid as this is an area I don’t know much about you’d be best asking a contact at the university or from the course. There is also the option to study part time which lots of people do, which could be a good balance of studying whilst still earning.

Thanks,
Jenny

Hi,
the topics I covered on my planning Masters included: regeneration, social housing, sustainability, urban design, planning policies etc. If you look at the website you’ll get a good idea of current modules. I’d advise picking something quite specific in relation to one of the above topics to keep your essay focused and specialised. For example, my dissertation looked specifically at how urban design and planning need to make city centres more family friendly. A niche angle normally attracts more attention than a generic essay about regeneration for example. Have a look at The Planner magazine for inspiration about what is topical at the moment. Good luck!