Urban Studies

Entry requirements

Our research degree applicants will usually possess a good Master’s degree (or overseas equivalent), with a significant component in urban planning and real estate.

Research proposal

Candidates are required to provide a single page outline of the research subject proposed (approximately 1000 words). This need not be a final thesis proposal but should include:

• a straightforward, descriptive, and informative title
• the question that your research will address
• an account of why this question is important and worth investigating
• an assessment of how your own research will engage with recent study in the subject
• a brief account of the methodology and approach you will take
• a discussion of the primary sources that your research will draw upon, including printed books, manuscripts, archives, libraries, or museums
• an indicative bibliography of secondary sources that you have already consulted and/or are planning to consult

Months of entry

Anytime

Course content

Urban Studies at Glasgow is widely recognised as a world-leading centre for innovative, interdisciplinary urban research with high international impact. The UK funding council ranked us joint 1st in the UK in research excellence in the Research Assessment Framework (REF, 2014), with 100% of our output assessed as internationally excellent or better.

We are multi-disciplinary in research approach and a PhD in Urban Studies will allow you to develop excellent skills in research methods and theory as well as engaging with pressing real-world problems that affect cities. You will have the opportunity to be supervised by internationally acclaimed scholars. Our strengths include:

• Big data, GIS, transport modelling, urban analytics
• Educational inequalities and outcomes for young people
• Housing, planning, real estate, regeneration, urban design
• Public policy, welfare reform, health and health inequalities
• Smart/future cities, challenges facing cities in the developing world
• Systems of governance, communities and participation

If you study with us you will have the opportunity to join a large, stimulating community of PhD students and benefit from engagement with major funded research centres, long-term research projects and will be able to join our long-established research groups.

A PhD in Urban Studies can be taken as a 1+3 programme in conjunction with an ESRC-recognised MRes programme (MRes in Urban Research or MRes Public Policy Research).

Information for international students

International English Language Testing System (IELTS) Academic module (not General Training)

• 7.0 with no sub-test under 6.5.
• Tests must have been taken within 2 years 5 months of start date. Applicants must meet the overall and subtest requirements using a single test.