ABOUT US

The Development Planning Unit (DPU) is an international centre specialising in academic teaching, practical training, research and consultancy in the field of urban and regional development and planning. It is concerned with promoting sustainable forms of development, understanding rapid urbanisation and encouraging innovation in the policy, planning and management responses to the economic, social and environmental development of cities and regions, especially in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The Development Planning Unit attracts a range of staff members with both academic and professional backgrounds in the field of international development. Teaching, research and advisory work at the DPU includes a significant degree of engagement with practice and field experience, including an overseas practice engagement.

The MSc Building and Urban Design in Development programme is strongly interdisciplinary, attracting participants from a wide variety of disciplines. A central concern of the course is to immerse students in the critical theory and practice of urban design. It is designed to recalibrate mainstream practices towards a new mode of inquiry and action, one that centres on the political relevance and social processes of design towards a transformative, just and sustainable urbanism.
The Graduate Teaching Assistant provides support to the Course Director of the MSc Building and Urban Design in Development (BUDD) course for academic administration.