Cardiff School of City and Regional Planning

About Us

Cardiff School of City and Regional Planning (CPLAN)
is one of the world’s leading centres for teaching and research in the urban, regional, rural, spatial and geographical social sciences. We are a multi-disciplinary applied human geography and urban studies school that for over half a century has been the premier school in the UK for spatial planning research and professionally accredited education.

In the 2008 RAE exercise we were ranked 1st among UK Planning schools for research power (for having the largest concentration of internationally recognized planning researchers). We also have the largest concentration of the top 50 most influential human geographers anywhere in the world ^[1]. All this makes for an immensely rich and vibrant community for our 77 research and teaching staff, 249 undergraduates, 202 Masters students and 52 PhD students.

We offer three-year BSc degrees in planning and in human geography and a four-year planning BSc that includes a third year in a planning consultancy or government department. Our Masters Graduate School offers seven exciting one-year Masters programmes covering a wide range of specialisms (transport, environment, urban design, international planning and development, regeneration, planning practice and research, geography); each offering a unique style of project, class and lab-based learning in partnership with private and public sector agencies and master-classes from highly regarded experts. Many of these programmes are accredited by professional bodies. Our PhD students are selected for their ability to contribute to the school’s ongoing research projects and agenda. They start off taking a Diploma in Social Science Research Methods (first 9 months) during which they make preparations for their doctoral project and start writing a thesis. With close supervision from supervisors, they are expected to start publishing learned papers during their time at Cardiff and receive training to develop their teaching skills.

We are a very international school, with our staff drawn from 14 nationalities; a busy programme of international visiting researchers and lecturers; and strong research links in Europe, Asia and the Americas. For students wishing to gain overseas experience we offer help in arranging, overseas internships, project work and periods of study in other universities. Students can also take a European or Asian foreign language. We have an International Tutor who attends to the particular needs of non-European students and we offer in-house English language improvement classes.

CPLAN has many research centres, but one of the most exciting developments in recent years is Cardiff University’s new Sustainable Places Research Institute (PLACE). The University has invested almost £10 Million in three University Research Institutes to consolidate some of its strongest areas of scholarship: the Cancer Stem Cell Research Institute (building on the pioneering work of one of Cardiff’s Nobel Laureates); Neuroscience and Mental Health Research Institute; and PLACE. The Sustainable Places Research Institute is led from our school and brings together scholars from Engineering, Architecture, Medicine, Social Science, Psychology, Business, Law and Earth Science to address the big questions in designing, managing and governing sustainable cities. If you join us at Cardiff, I hope that the Institute’s work, along with all the other things going on in CPLAN, will inspire you to make your own contribution to these big questions: in your project work and individual assignments; in your discussions with staff, other students and visiting experts; and in the career ahead of you.

Chris Webster, Head of School