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Course overview
Deepen your knowledge and research skills of urban design while seeking to solve complex challenges the industry faces, on UCA's new postgraduate Urban Design degree.
Taught at the Canterbury School of Architecture and Design, this course, within its stimulating, creative and supportive environment, will help you develop your own approach to urban design, which you'll do through research-led practice and experimental design.
Specialist areas you might choose to focus on in your projects could include climatic design, urban revitalisation and renewal, advanced retrofit, localism, transport infrastructures, urban or rural landscapes, or specialist urban analysis. You can work with interesting heritage and sustainability questions, engaging with both contemporary technology and traditional crafts, as well as exploring both digital and ‘real’ space.
You will have access to advanced forms of fabrication and testing, the latest scanning and VR technology, and a suite of traditional craft based workshops, all of which will allow you to bring your design proposals to life, and help launch you to potential higher level urban design and planning careers.
This course is subject to validation.
What you'll
study
The content of the course may be subject to change. Curriculum content is provided as a guide.
Get ready for your chosen postgraduate course with this preparatory year of specialist study. With a mix of online and face-to-face learning, UCA’s Integrated Pre-Masters is designed to give you insight into the study skills required to complete a Master’s, within the context of your creative subject. You’ll build skills in autonomous learning, forming your own targets and goals, honing your research skills, time management and professional practice.
For our students coming from a non-UK educational background, UCA has launched an Integrated International Pre-Masters year, which is based at UCA Farnham.
On this course you’ll prepare for postgraduate study with a mix of online and face-to-face learning that will give you the study skills required to complete a Master’s, and you’ll also improve your English for academic study.
You'll be introduced to the University and the technical workshops and facilities available to you. The first term includes a range of lectures and seminars and you’ll start to explore your creative practice.
Contexts and Methods: You'll be challenged to address core thinking and practices within contemporary and historical architecture, fine art and design. You'll also cover key thematic debates related to the landscape; historic movements, concepts of cultural production, spatial perception and cognition, material tactility and embodied relations. These form a critical intellectual context for you to contemplate your particular research agendas.
Exploratory Practice: Immerse yourself in creative studio practice in this unit, and maybe even begin formulating your ideas for the latter stages of your MSc in this unit. You'll also be introduced to the complexities, demands and moments of failure inherent in self-managing and delivering ambitious spatial proposals including landscape design and fabrication.
During term two you begin developing your MSc project, evaluating and testing out the aims of your proposal over a sustained period of self-directed study.
Project Development: Work that you undertake during this unit builds upon what you learned in the first term - you'll be expected to integrate strands of theoretical and applied or practical research into a considerably more resolved and advanced line of enquiry that can sustain the remainder of your MSc project.
In the third term of the course, you'll apply the knowledge gained through your research to create a final body of work.
Final Realisation: The culmination of your course is the final realisation of your major project, which should be an exposition and practical manifestation of ideas, concepts, and degrees of sophisticated practice achieved. It should achieve a resolution to investigations initiated in all previous units and deliver a single body of work that demonstrates advanced conceptual, technological and practical capability.
Tuition fees - 2023 entry
UK students:
- Integrated Pre-Masters course - £10,500
- MSc course - £10,500
EU students:
- Integrated International Pre-Masters course - £10,500 (see fee discount information)
- MSc course - £10,500 (see fee discount information)
International students:
- Integrated International Pre-Masters course (30 weeks) - £17,500
- Integrated International Pre-Masters course (15 weeks) - £8,750
- MSc course - £17,500
Additional course costs
In addition to the tuition fees there may be other costs for your course. The things that you are likely to need to budget for to get the most out of a creative arts education will include books, printing costs, occasional or optional study trips and/or project materials. These costs will vary according to the nature of your project work and the individual choices that you make. Please see the Additional Course Costs section of your Course Information for details of the costs you may incur.
Further information
For more detailed information about our course fees and any financial support you may be entitled to please see our fees and finance pages.
The fees listed here are correct for the stated academic year only. Costs may increase each year during a student’s period of continued registration on course in line with inflation (subject to any maximum regulated tuition fee limit). Any adjustment for continuing students will be at or below the RPI-X forecast rate.
To support our students and alumni to progress to the next level of study, we have developed a new range of fee discounts across a range of courses.
Course specifications
Please note, syllabus content indicated is provided as a guide. The content of the course may be subject to change in line with our Student Terms and Conditions for example, as required by external professional bodies or to improve the quality of the course.
Facilities
Dedicated postgraduate open plan studio spaces, used for group tutorials and personal working. 3D workshop with machines for working in wood, metals, plastics and ceramics. Fully-equipped computer studio with Macs and PCs programmed with the latest software for design and animation. Laser cutters, 3D printers and virtual reality lab on campus.
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Architecture studios, UCA Canterbury
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Architecture Digital Media studios, UCA Canterbury
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Fabrication Lab, UCA Canterbury
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3D workshop, UCA Canterbury
Entry requirements
MSc course
- An honours degree or equivalent qualification in the subject or a related discipline
and/or
- Relevant work experience, demonstrating your ability to study at postgraduate level.
Consideration will also be given to applicants who can make a strong case for admission in relation to a particular project and can demonstrate their potential to satisfactorily complete the course.
Check the equivalent qualifications for your country and the English language requirements:
Any additional entry requirements listed in the UK requirements section, e.g., subject requirements, work experience or professional qualifications, also apply to international applicants applying with equivalent qualifications.
MSc course with Integrated International Pre-Masters course
A recognised bachelor degree or 3 year diploma with a strong portfolio in a relevant subject.
Don't meet the international entry requirements or English language requirements?
You may be able to enter the course through the following entry pathways:
MSc course
MSc course with Integrated International Pre-Masters course
For these courses, we may need to see your visual or written portfolio for review. We’ll invite you to upload your portfolio online via your Applicant Portal – further information will be provided once you have applied. If you would prefer to meet the Academic Team in person for a review of your work on campus, this can also be arranged for you.
Apply now
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