UCC students have announced an exciting line up for their Planning Society conference this year. With three topical and interesting sessions spread out through the day it promises to be a lively and enjoyable event.

The Centre for Planning Education and Research is pleased to announce the formal launch of the North Main Street Area Planning Study 2016 on Tuesday November 15^th in St. Peter’s, North Main Street at 6.00pm. The launch will be attended by the city’s Lord Mayor, Cllr Des Cahill and the city’s Chief Executive, Ann Doherty, as well as representatives from the University, the wider business and political communities, and from the local stakeholders.  It will include a brief introduction to the project by the Traders’ Association, as well as a presentation by staff and postgraduate students from UCC’s Planning School. The report can be downloaded here North Main Street Planning Study.

The Centre for Planning Education & Research is delighted to announce that Karen Ray (a Geography and M.Plan graduate from UCC and a corporate member of the Irish Planning Institute) successfully defended a PhD on the topic of planning and landscape in March 2016. 

The UCC Planning students held a seminar with John Cleary, MD of JCD Commerical Property Developers - one of Ireland's leading and most active property development companies. The seminar addressed some of the interactions between the planning process and the property development industry, as well as focussing on a range of large scale urban regeneration issues in Cork and across Ireland. The seminar concluded with a short presentation by the planning students and a discussion with John Cleary about a key city centre regeneration site.

Two M.Plan students have been awarded a bursary under the RTPI's (Royal Town Planning Institute) Future Planner Bursary Scheme. The bursary recipients from UCC for 2015/2016 are Mary Molloy and David Shannon, First Year M.Plan students, and were presented with their bursary awards by Professor Cathal O'Connell, School of Applied Social Studies. The bursary has been supported by the UCC Centre for Planning Education and Research.

The First Year Planning students have recently completed a busy 5 day study visit to Northern England, where they enountered a wide range of large-scale urban planning issues in Leeds, York, Bradford, Wakefield, and Liverpool. This year's trip involved a long bus and ferry trip from Cork via Dublin Port. The highlight of the trip yet again was the tour of Liverpool facilitated by Professor Chris Couch from the University of Liverpool's Planning school.

A group of Second Year Planning Students from UCC were selected to present the results of their transportation &technology research project at the ECTP Young Planners Workshop 2015 at the 11th Biennial of European Towns and Town Planners/Dublin October 2015. The student group consisted of Padraig Collins, Danielle Nevin, Luke Martin, Ciara Cosgrave and Kayleigh Sexton, and their research focussed on a review of the bike-share scheme in Cork since its introduction in November 2014. 

MPlan graduate Saorlaith Ní Shuibhne was presented with the Irish Planning Institute Gerry Walker Prize 2014 for her paper 'Pedestrian and Vehicle Interaction at City Centre Junctions'. Her paper was selected from entries to the 2014 Student Pleanáil competition. Each year a winning paper chosen from entries to Student Pleanáil is awarded a prize and is published in Pleanáil - the Journal of the Irish Planning Institute.

As part of their Landscape Character, Context and Change module, students from both the Landscape, Built Heritage & Design and the M.Plan Year 2 programmes took part in a one-day study visit to the West Cork region.

P.J. O'Brien, a current MPlan student, was recently named as the 2014 Irish Branch Student Award Winner.

This year's First Year planning students were joined by the students from the Masters in Landscape, Built Heritage and Design on a four-day study visit to the North of England. The highlight of the trip was an extended tour of Liverpool's resurgent and lively city centre and docksides.

MPlan graduates Bernard Dwyer and Gregor Herda recently represented Ireland at the European Council of Town Planners Young Planners Workshop in Brussels in May 2014.

The First Year M.Plan students have recently commenced a new project which will culminate in the submission of a Planning Study based on the town of Passage West.

The CPER contribution to the debate on local government reform continues with the publication in January's instalment of the Administration Journal.

Three entries from student/graduate from the Centre for Planning Education and Research have been shortlisted for the Student Awards category in this year’s Irish Planning Institute’s National Planning Awards. 

Researchers from the Centre for Planning Education and Research have recently completed a study examining the history of iconic places in Ireland.

The Year One M.Plan and MA Students recently visited the North of England on their Metropolitan study visit.

The Centre is delighted to announce that this new MA, commencing in Autumn 2013, is now on the university calendar and open for applications.

"Planning and Contemporary Change in the Iveragh Landscape", a chapter in the recent Cork University Press volume The Iveragh Peninsula - a cultural Atlas of the Ring of Kerry, presents an analysis of recent patterns of rural planning permission and development change in the area.

Professional planners work in the public, private and non-governmental sectors at national, regional and local levels and gain a broad range of abilities and skills for working in a variety of economic and social contexts.

First year M.Plan students recently made a formal presentation to local businesses, the Town Council and the wider community in Youghal as part of ongoing consultation exercise for the Youghal Town Centre Strategy.

The theme of this year's National Planning Conference (held on 15th and 16th April) was 'Planning for a Smarter Ireland'.

Second Year M.Plan students recently completed a 9 day international study visit to Denmark.

This year for the first time, our M.Plan1 students are carrying out a joint assignment with the final year Architecture students from the UCC / CIT undergraduate degree.

On Wednesday 7th March, a joint presentation by Dr. Cara Nine [Philosophy] and Dr. Brian O Gallachoir [Energy Engineering] entitled 'Resources, Energy and Rights' marked the completion of UCC's first Colloquium Series on Environment, Planning and Sustainability organised by the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, the Environmental Research Institute, the Programme for Planning and Sustainable Development and the School of Sociology and Philosophy.

Organised by the Irish Walled Towns Network/Heritage Council in conjunction with UCC's Planning school and the Department of Geography, this one-day conference "Heritage as an Engine of Economic Growth in Mid-Sized Towns" was held on January 26th 2012 in the Wood Quay Venue, Dublin City Council Offices.

Two M.Plan student projects were in receipt of special Commendations at the Irish Planning Institute's National Planning awards which were presented by Ms Jan O’Sullivan TD, Minister for Housing and Planning, Department of Environment, Community and Local Government and Mr. Brendan Allen, President, Irish Planning Institute, in the Custom House, Dublin on February 16th 2012. .

The third session of the weekly interdisciplinary conversations on Environment, Planning and Sustainability will be held this week, Thursday January 31s.00 pm.t at 6  ALL WELCOME.

UCC's 2013 Colloquium Series on Environment, Planning and Sustainability was officially launched on Thursday 24^th by Professor Caroline Fennell, Head of College of Arts Celtic Studies and Social Sciences UCC and Professor Patrick Fitzpatrick, Head of College of  Science Engineering and Food Science UCC. 

The UCC Centre for Planning Education and Research took part in a major international conference in Paris in May 2013, organised by Uniscape, the European network of universities that addresses the implementation of the European Landscape Convention. 

M.Plan Year Two students recently completed their week-long international study visit to France in February/March 2012 as part of the PD6201: Applied Dialogues in Planning and Sustainable Development Module.

A UCC planning student project has been recognised by the Town and Country Planning Association and the International Federation for Housing and Planning for exhibition at the London Centenary Congress of the IFHP to be held in June 2013.

At a ceremony following the IPI Annual Dinner held in the Clarence Hotel, Dublin on November 9th, an M.Plan Year 2 Group Village Exercise received an award as part of the Irish Planning Institute Annual Student Awards scheme.  

A team of twelve M.Plan first and second year students, led by one of the programme's PhD researchers, Evelyn Sikora, recently completed an employment and land use survey commissioned by Cork City Council.

Dr. David Counsell, visiting lecturer and formerly full time staff member of the UCC Programme in Planning and Sustainable is one of the co-authors of an important new planning text.

Two-Year Internationally Accredited Professional Planning Masters at University College Cork, Ireland

At a conference on New Regional Governance in Ireland: Perspectives and Challenges, organised by the Regional Studies Association in conjunction with the Department of Geography/NIRSA, NUI Maynooth in January, William Brady from UCC's Centre for Planning Education and Research presented a paper exploring the opportunities for the emergence of metropolitan planning and governance in Ireland's main cities.

Whilst planning school graduates have traditionally tended to work in local government and other public sector agencies, their skills are increasingly in demand in private practice, in development, and in a whole range of non-governmental settings throughout the world.

Second year M.Plan students completed their two-centre study visit to Flanders in February 2010.

The Second Year UCC M.Plan students, under the supervison of urban design lecturer Jeremy Ward, presented their end of year projects on 26th March 2010.