MSc in Pianificazione e Sviluppo

Completion of this one-year conversion Master, following your undergraduate qualification, will allow you to become an accredited planner.

Planning is a fascinating subject to study at university. It is about changing the places within which we live. How we can transform and improve our cities, towns, villages, neighborhoods, and communities. So, it affects our everyday lives and is an extremely exciting discipline to study at university. A Planning degree provides you with the knowledge and skills to be able to make decisions that shape the processes of growth and development. We currently face many major challenges - for example, attracting investment, creating jobs, protecting the environment, energy policy, housing supply, transport links, providing local amenities, and protecting health and wellbeing - and Planning affects how these things happen. Therefore, as future planners, you will have a very important role to play in shaping the future. Planning is a broad subject matter and planners perform many different roles relating to the natural, physical, economic, social, and cultural environments that we live in. Given this, Planning offers a wide spectrum of employment opportunities. Studying Planning will equip you with the knowledge to understand how cities, towns, villages, communities, and neighborhoods function and operate, and then have the skills to make decisions that shape how they grow and prosper. The discipline of Planning is located in the School of Natural and Built Environment, David Keir Building on Stranmillis Road, Belfast.

The course’s primary focus is on attaining a professional qualification. It is designed as a conversion Master's for graduates in any undergraduate subject to provide a broad knowledge of planning and the professional skills and experience you’ll need to forge a career in this area. Your dissertation may be a work-based project, working for a client organization on a brief that they commission. You will learn the use of techniques (GIS, design software, statistical analysis) but more importantly, how to apply them to solve problems, create new solutions for the built environment, and understand the complexity of environmental management.

The Environment

You’ll be working in an applied problem-solving environment, confronting genuine challenges in the field, and making a real contribution to sustainable environments. We emphasize projects on live planning problems such as a Development Plan exercise for a client (local authority), on studio work and applied learning outside the class including problem-solving with controversial proposals, such as fracking and windfarm applications. You’ll work with your fellow students in teams to find practical approaches to the management and development of the built environment.

The Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences

The comfort and security of our modern world are provided by amazing advances in science and technology, focused on improving our lives.

The Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences spans disciplines that impact lives today and will shape our future. Our international mix of staff and students make up a vibrant community that is home to some of the most innovative and globally significant research and teaching. It works where industry and research meet, providing the platform to spin out research into commercial opportunities and engage with industry on cutting-edge research with real-world projects such as the work with Wrightbus to produce the cleanest hybrid bus technology that powers the London Routemaster, or the pioneering work in The Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology, securing our digital future through their Centre for Secure Information Technologies.

With strength in traditional engineering disciplines, the Faculty brings together diverse topics, such as carbon dating and astrophysics, to create a dynamic multidisciplinary setting for students and academics to thrive. Underpinning our research is the drive to solve the big challenges that society faces, whether it is understanding the human brain’s perception to aid Parkinson’s sufferers, or clean energy production through CenTACat, our research is leading the world in an environment rooted in the ideals of Athena SWAN where we actively promote Women in Science and Engineering.

The leadership provided by our academics creates opportunities for all students to satisfy their ambitions through taught and research programmes. Come and join us, and help change the world!

Professor Mark Price

Faculty Pro-Vice-Chancellor

Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences

A World Class Education and Student Experience

Our inspiring alumni comprises outstanding scholars, Nobel Prize winners - such as Seamus Heaney and David Trimble - and influential leaders who are making an impact in Northern Ireland and across the globe.

Our students enjoy being educated by world-leading academics working at the forefront of their disciplines and a significant investment in the student experience has resulted in high levels of student satisfaction.

Over 94% of Queen’s graduates are in employment or further study six months after graduation; our graduates are dominating senior leadership positions in 80 of Northern Ireland's top 100 companies and making a difference in over 120 countries.

At the Forefront of Tackling Global Challenges

Together, we are changing lives across Northern Ireland and further afield: our discovery of a new molecule has the potential to prolong the life of people living with cystic fibrosis; we are at the forefront of a major breakthrough in the fight against bowel cancer, and we’re striving to help people with MS recover nerve function.

We are at the forefront of developing new thinking and technologies in key areas such as Health, Reconciliation, Peace and Justice, Information Technology, Food Security, and Energy.

Northern Ireland's Legendary Beauty

A city with innovation at its heart, technological advances infiltrate every sector helping to build our competitiveness on the global stage. There are almost 900 international companies located in Northern Ireland, making Belfast the second most successful city in the UK (after London) for attracting US trade.

There’s plenty happening outside the city, including the famous filming locations for the HBO series Game of Thrones, the awe-inspiring Giant’s Causeway, voted the UK’s best Heritage Attraction, and the Mourne Mountains, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty canonised as CS Lewis’ Narnia.

*Lonely Planet, 2017