MA Urban Design | Part-time
- Entry year:
- 2025/26
- Start date:
- September
- Study mode:
- Part-time
- Course duration:
- 2 years
- Campus:
- Mount Pleasant
About this course
LJMU's Urban Design MA enables you to explore your creative potential to change the landscape of cities and urban spaces and our experience within them.
- Join a strong research-focussed academic community
- Develop your work in state-of-the-art workspaces and facilities within the RIBA award-winning John Lennon Art and Design Building
- 2022 Liverpool School of Art and Design MA online degree show
- Visit the School of Art and Design MA Microsite
In a world of rapidly rising and migrating urban populations, there is a palpable need for smarter, more inclusive approaches to city planning, adaptation and spatial design.
Study Urban Design in a resurgent, UNESCO recognised city of cultural significance and advance your skills to create spaces that solve modern problems in cross-cultural contexts. This programme has strong links with the RIBA North and the Liverpool Biennial which, every two years, delivers an international programme of exhibitions and projects that lead to a rediscovery of the city.
The programme is nourished by Liverpool School of Art and Designs burgeoning research in Urbanism and close association with the University's European Institute for Urban Affairs.
The curriculum has creative place-making at its core and we welcome applicants from a variety of educational and professional backgrounds such as architecture, planning, landscape architecture, art and spatial design.
Course modules
Discover the building blocks of your programme
Further guidance on modules
Modules are designated core or optional in accordance with professional body requirements, as applicable, and LJMU’s Academic Framework Regulations. Whilst you are required to study core modules, optional modules provide you with an element of choice. Their availability may vary and will be subject to meeting minimum student numbers.
Where changes to modules are necessary these will be communicated as appropriate.
Core modules
Your Learning Experience
An insight into teaching on your course
Study hours
The majority of contact time takes place on Tuesdays, with sessions on Fridays and the cross-school Collaborative Practice module sessions at the beginning of semester one. This module culminates in an exhibition of student work in April.
Teaching methods
Teaching is individually tailored to each student. Each week is divided between lectures, seminars, tutorials, studio supervisions and workshops.
Applied learning
LJMU academics bring real world experience to the programme, working with nationally recognised urban design practitioners, local authority planning and urban design departments and international academic partners on urban projects, public exhibitions and related publications. These interactions help to ensure that our curriculum is kept up-to-date and that you secure the knowledge and skills required to succeed professionally on graduation.
How learning is monitored on your programme
To cater for the wide-ranging content of our courses and the varied learning preferences of our students, we offer a range of assessment methods on each programme.
Assessment methods on this programme include: a major project proposal report, practical project work, a major project thesis and a personal development plan. You will also be assessed for the quality of your drawings and model making.
Where you will study
What you can expect from your School
The programme is based in the Liverpool School of Art and Designs John Lennon Art and Design building, part of the Mount Pleasant Campus. This purpose-built facility in Liverpool city centre encourages interaction between different disciplines and the sharing of ideas and expertise.
Course tutors
Dr Aliki Myrto Perysinaki
- Programme Leader
I enjoy all forms of studio-based teaching. My passion is project-based learning that brings a wide variety of knowledge and abilities into play to explore germane lines of intellectual and practical inquiry.
I enjoy all forms of studio-based teaching. My passion is project-based learning that brings a wide variety of knowledge and abilities into play to explore germane lines of intellectual and practical inquiry.
Ian has taught architecture in Austria, Slovenia, Malaysia and Turkey and with collaborative partners from Sweden, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Portugal, Belgium and Greece. A registered and chartered architect, Ian worked for over 20 years in a range of multi-disciplinary practices before forming his own design company in 2001. Ian's research focuses on the analysis of cognition in the creative process. He is interested in: cognitive bias, judgement heuristics and the validity of commonly used design quality indicators. In recent years he has focused on the effective measurement and enhancement of processes and practices in the briefing, conceptual design and post occupancy evaluation stages of the building design process.
Career paths
Further your career prospects
LJMU has an excellent employability record with 96% (HESA 2018) of our postgraduates in work or further study six months after graduation. Our applied learning techniques and strong industry connections ensure our students are fully prepared for the workplace on graduation and understand how to apply their knowledge in a real world context.
As a graduate of this programme, a number of career paths will be open to you. Most aligned with your formal education is the practice of urban design work in specialist agencies or public sector bodies. These roles consider how structures and systems function within existing landscapes and how they can be manipulated to offer the best living and working solutions.
Many graduates have successfully secured employment at world-class practices throughout the UK and further afield, while others have remained in
Liverpool contributing to its evolution by taking key roles in leading practices that have reshaped the city over the last decade.
For those interested in taking their learning to the next level, this programme also offers the opportunity to progress to PhD study and embark on a career teaching Urban Design.
Tuition fees and funding
- Home part-time per credit:
- £49.85
Fees
The fees quoted above cover registration, tuition, supervision, assessment and examinations as well as library membership and student IT support with access to printed, multimedia and digital resources including programme-appropriate software and on campus wifi.
Financial Support
There are many ways to fund postgraduate study for home and international students. From loans to International Scholarships and subject-specific funding, you’ll find all of the information you need on our specialist postgraduate funding pages. The University offers a range of financial support for students. You'll find all the information you need on our specialist financial support pages including details of the Student Support Fund and other activities to support with the cost of living.
Additional Costs
In addition to fees, students should also keep in mind the cost of:
- Accommodation
- Travel costs and field trips unless paid for by LJMU
- Stationery, IT equipment, professional body membership and graduation gown hire
Bursaries and study awards
The Liverpool School of Art and Design offers students across all taught postgraduate programmes opportunities to apply for scholarships aimed at broadening student knowledge and experience.
The Michael Pugh Thomas and Julia Carter Preston Legacy scholarships consist of a number of £1,000 awards and are open to full-time and part-time home and international students who wish to study for a postgraduate qualification in art and design with LJMU. Part-time applicants can only apply once over the two years of their course.
To be considered for the scholarship, you must submit a 500 word letter to APSadmissions@ljmu.ac.uk after being formally offered a place on a Masters programme in the School of Art and Design. The application deadline for September entry is June 30.
Please ensure you include your name, contact details, the full title of the course you have applied to study on and 500 words stating why you should be awarded the scholarship, the benefits it will bring to your studies and any exceptional circumstances you face in studying for a postgraduate qualification. Further information for international students about finance, fees and scholarships can be found here.
The School's main travel bursary for existing students, The Susan Cotton Travel Awards, consists of three European Awards of £1,600 and two International Awards of £2,300. The awards are intended to help you undertake significant domestic or international travel in support of your work and personal development. The awards aren't necessarily about academic study, instead they focus on the spirit of travel and adventure. Previous winners of the bursary have travelled to a tropical island to experience life at its most basic, cycled the length of the Danube, spent a month in Morocco and inter-railed through Europe.
Entry requirements
You will need:
Qualification requirements
How to apply
Securing your place at LJMU
To apply for this programme, you are required to complete an LJMU online application form. You will need to provide details of previous qualifications and a personal statement outlining why you wish to study this programme.
Your application should demonstrate that you have a sufficient level of knowledge to embark upon the programme (including the required linguistic competence) and complete it within the time limits.
You will need to provide evidence of your learning capability at interview stage. You will also need to demonstrate your commitment to a postgraduate programme of study.
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