Long-established Planning course to close

The closure of one of the oldest undergraduate Planning courses in the UK has been announced.

The BSc (Hons) in Town Planning at Heriot-Watt University, one of the oldest undergraduate Planning courses in the UK, has ceased to recruit new students.

The course had been under pressure for some time over concerns about recruitment. To address these challenges, the University now offers a BSc (Hons) in Geography, with an emphasis on physical geography, and an MA (Hons) in Geography, Society and Environment. The MA includes Third Year modules in Governance and Participation; Place and Place-making ; and Comparative Urban Development.

The Complete University Guide for 2022 ranked Heriot-Watt 9th in the UK for Town Planning and Landscape Architecture.

Undergraduate planning courses have been under pressure since the RTPI decided to reduce the required length of post-graduate courses for accreditation from two-years full-time to 12 months full-time, some 20 years ago. In contrast, four years has remained the requirement for the undergraduate route.

Within universities, recruitment involves not only numbers but entry level qualifications, which are often lower for Planning than for Geography, Architecture or Engineering courses.

RTPI has been reviewing its education policy for some months and a report is expected early in 2023. It is thought that the required length for undergraduate accreditation is one issue being considered.

RTPI Scotland have noted that a quarter of local authority planning staff have been cut since 2009. They calculate that over the next 10 to 15 years the planning sector in Scotland will have demand for an additional 680 – 730 entrants, and that „The planning workforce has both demographic and succession challenges in the short, medium and long term.“ None of that will matter to university managers who face their own budget challenges in the marketised world of UK higher education.

The only remaining undergraduate planning course in Scotland will now be that at the University of Dundee.