City & Regional Planning

Student testimonials

The MSc in City & Regional Planning has been running for seven years now as part of the Real Estate, Planning and Regeneration (REPR) programme, and the students are expressing a very high level of satisfaction and enjoyment of the courses. Courses on the programme have received the following kinds of feedback:

Real Estate Development: 'an excellent speaker and material made what would at first impression seem a boring topic (land contamination) very interesting. Good use of case studies.' Overall, this course was seen as 'excellent' in its delivery and content.

Spatial Planning Strategies: Very high satsifaction with teaching style and range of exernal speakers. One student said: 'Really good! Excellent lectures, very engaging and interesting. Also conducive to a positive "this is what I signed up for" sentiment.'

Designing Places: 'Wonderful!'

Students express their greatest enjoyment in our courses in relation to the following aspects of the way we teach:

Use of external speakers and practitioners: ' variety of contributors was good. Lots of opportunities to ask questions/discuss. Enough practical things to break up class lectures.'

Field visits and practical work: students really value the opportunity to be out of the classroom, learning in new ways and hearing from on-site professionals: 'nice to get out a classroom' ...a 'well organised with timekeeping and comfortable transport. Excellent input from guest lecturers.'

Regular seminars: 'great at providing a link between course contents and the real world.' The seminar series has given students the chance to hear from, and discuss issues with such eminent personalities as Baroness Margaret Ford (Chair of English Partnerships and Irvine Bay URC), Jim Mackinnon (former Chief Planner for Scotland), John MacBean and Mike Buchan (Jones Lang LaSalle) and Jan Bebbington (Professor of Accounting and Sustainable Development, University of St Andrews). 

Placements and links to employers: 'presentations (from employers) are useful in terms of being able to gain an idea of the jobs market and what we can expect in terms of pay and conditions.'

Facilities: students regularly use the REPR Resource Room including computing facilities, graphic printers, discussion space, and additional material and resources.