Regeneration for Practitioners – (M.Sc.)

Contents

Programme Structure

Learners, in close consultation with tutors, construct their own programme from a wide range of work based, subject specific and generic skills modules.

Modules include:

Urban and Regional Regeneration Policy

The module provides an overview of policies and programmes designed to reduce/alleviate the consequences of spatial inequality, and relates them to the evolving understanding of the nature and dimensions of the problem, the context within which it has occurred and the application of theory to policy.

Leading and Managing People

The module is intended for professional practitioners who find themselves assuming greater management and leadership responsibilities without having received any formal management training and education. The module addresses the key requirements for human skills required by managers in respect of motivating people to work, developing a cohesive and inclusive management style, recruitment and selection, encouraging a performance culture and developing staff, team working and leadership. The module is suitable for a wide range of practitioners on the WBIS programme.

The Economic Function of the City

The module is designed to provide an introduction to the major theoretical perspectives developed to explain patterns of growth and decline in a globalised, post-industrial economy such as the UK. The unit of analysis used is principally the town or city, rather than the region, since it is urban centres which are viewed as the drivers of growth. Theories are drawn upon from economists, geographers and others as the basis for an emerging inter-disciplinary approach.

Housing Design and Development

This module will be delivered in accordance with the individual work based practices of learners and can incorporate the following: the historical legacy; housing production in the UK since the nineteenth century; housing and utopianism including Land Societies, Building Societies, Garden Cities, planned settlements, urban villages, contemporary self build, housing co-ops, communities and design professionals; contemporary housing production; the housing market; design issues and housing; practical housing layout; planning considerations - density, mix, type, modulation, highway issues; housing in inner areas.

Financial Management for Regeneration

The content of the module will be negotiated and agreed with the individual/client prior to accreditation using the following specification: raising finance - funding applications; business planning; managing finance - budget setting; interpreting and directing management accounts; managing budgets in practice.

Social Exclusion

This module is designed to provide an introduction to the concepts of, and theoretical approaches to, Social Exclusion. It explores how Social Exclusion is measured. This includes the use of quantitative measures provided by, for example, the national indices of multiple deprivation. It considers the key skills and issues of relevance to strategists/practitioners involved with both regeneration and social inclusion policies and programmes. The final section of this module considers evaluation issues in respect of social inclusion policy in England and Wales, and the relative impact of interventions on the most marginalised areas and groups.

Regeneration Practice

The core of the learning experience is likely to include the equivalent of five day field visits to expose learners to a variety of practice situations. The field visits will be as varied a programme as possible for each cohort. The focus of such visits can, amongst other key areas of consideration, include comparisons between English, Welsh and European practice; strategic regeneration practice; community based or led initiatives; big city and small town approaches; town centre initiatives; physical regeneration/flagship schemes; social integration/neighbourhood schemes; housing based initiatives.

Conflict Transformation

The module is aimed at people working in organisations or within communities. It will enable students to examine and evaluate a range of attitudes and methodologies of relevance to organisational/community conflicts. It will allow them to develop an understanding of the nature of conflict and apply that knowledge as they experience and/or attempt to transform conflict situations. Students will also be encouraged to reflect critically on the culture, ethos, and work procedures within their organisation, and to assess the impact of their new knowledge and research on the development of the organisation and/or on their own personal and professional development.

Negotiation Skills

This module is ideally suited to those who are called upon to deal professionally with conflict, through negotiation, whether as practitioners, managers, educators, carers or volunteers. This module will provide a sound theoretical and practical knowledge of negotiation skills and how this can assist assertion, support autonomy and save individual's significant upset and financial cost, as well as enhancing core life and relationship skills and /or employability.

This list is of modules is not exhaustive. Learners can devise their own accredited learning projects. Alternatively, where demand exists, new modules will be developed by the module team.

Assessment

Each module is assessed by means of coursework. The nature of this work varies between modules, but the emphasis of the programme is on relating experience to key models, theories and examples of good practice drawn from the workplace generally, and from the regeneration area specifically.

Learners are encouraged to submit examples of their own practice. Strong emphasis is placed on formative feedback and personal cognitive development through the submission of drafts.