Competency-based UK Urban Spatial Planning Education

Abstract

Spatial planning to inform actions and interventions that go well beyond traditional notions of urban planning is now an integral part of UK domestic policy making. Education in spatial planning is now required as a condition of becoming a Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) chartered town planner. All RTPI-accredited planning programmes have incorporated spatial planning education into their curricula. Unaccredited UK urban planning programmes and programmes in geography, environmental studies, and other disciplines related to the built environment are also teaching spatial planning. The RTPI does not prescribe particular content for spatial planning education and grants universities wide discretion on what to teach. While Geographical Information Systems (GIS) software and related spatial information technology are now widely used in urban planning, the RTPI does not require UK urban planning programmes to teach GIS or spatial thinking concepts from the emerging field of Geographical Information Science and Technology (GIS&T). While many urban planning programmes now make GIS&T concepts and GIS operations central features of spatial planning education, the competencies that they teach vary widely from programme to programme. This article summarises research on urban spatial planning education the author conducted for the Spatial Literacy in Teaching (SPLINT) project based at the University of Leicester.* It describes a competency-based model for UK urban spatial planning education that matches spatial information competencies against roles in spatial planning that professionals may perform on graduation. It suggests appropriate competencies at different levels of urban planning education along multiple urban planning career paths.