Urban Studies MSc
Year of entry: 2026
Course length: 12 Months Full-Time | 24 Months Part-Time
As urban populations continue to expand globally, cities face increasingly complex challenges in achieving inclusive, just, and sustainable futures. These challenges draw on the strengths of many academic disciplines from anthropology and architecture to business studies, economics, geography, history, planning, political science and sociology. Each offers valuable insights and approaches, but it is by bringing them together that we can fully understand and address these complex issues. This course is designed to do exactly that.
MSc Urban Studies responds to this need for interdisciplinary thinking. Drawing on concepts and methods from a wide range of disciplines, the course offers a sophisticated understanding of urbanisation and the social, political, economic, and environmental forces shaping contemporary cities.
You will gain critical insights through core units including Critical Issues in Urban Studies, Researching the City, Policy and Politics in Action in Greater Manchester, and Global Urban Futures. These are complemented by a wide selection of optional units, allowing you to tailor your studies to your specific interests while developing advanced analytical tools, research methods, and theoretical perspectives to examine urban challenges across local and global contexts.
Impact Ranked
We are ranked 2nd in the World for societal and environmental impact (THE Impact Rankings 2025).
World-Class Teaching
Taught by internationally renowned researchers in their respective fields, drawing upon the departments of Architecture, Geography, Global Development, and Planning and Environmental Management.
Urban Insights
Benefit from the city of Manchester as a learning laboratory, with course units drawing on its rich history and its place in the world today.
Dr Caitlin Henry
Dr Caitlin Henry, Co-Programme Director for MSc Urban Studies. Caitlin is an urban and feminist geographer with interests in feminist political economy and health geography. Her research focuses on how crises – economic, social, political, and health – impact workers, cities, welfare states, and social life. Her current research focuses on two areas: the many impacts of health care restructuring in western welfare states and the geographies end of life care work in US and UK cities.
