For anyone interested in our built or natural environment, in the design, evolution and conservation of our cities, towns and countryside, in the environmental and societal challenges facing the world, or in the political and economic forces shaping the future of urban and rural areas, a career in planning presents an exciting and rewarding prospect. Planners have a direct influence in shaping the places in which people live and are tasked with ensuring that development needs can be balanced with the requirement to protect society and the environment. These challenges are extremely urgent in the context of a rapidly developing and urbanising world, and planners are taking an increasingly central role in promoting and delivering strategies that can ensure successful, attractive, healthy and sustainable places.

A professional planning qualification from UCC provides graduates with an exciting range of career opportunities. Many planners continue to seek work in the public sector for local government, or in regional or national level agencies, while the private sector and planning/environmental consultancies increasingly provide opportunities in an environment which recognises the importance of the planner. Planners are also being employed in sectors such as housing, transportation, energy, construction, community development, overseas aid, and retail.

UCC’s M.Plan programme has a strong reputation for producing high calibre graduates who are well prepared for the professional world of planning practice. The success of the programme is best reflected in the career profiles of its graduates who have performed extremely well in the public, private, education and community sectors, and their particular skills and competencies as planning professionals are being recognised increasingly by a range of employers in a wide variety of contexts in Ireland and internationally.