Tomorrow I am a panelist for a Guardian on-line debate on careers in town planning. Town planning has been in the news recently due to the Scottish Funding Council’s consultation on future spending for university courses. The council aims to cut down on the amount of funding given to planning and architecture courses, downgrading these subjects to the lowest possible funding level. 

Town planning is one of the routes into a career in place management – but town planners tend to be more distant from the communities they plan.  At my own university (Manchester Metropolitan University) we do offer an MSc in Place Management – and as this qualification resides in the Business School – it attracts the same funding as other business courses.  The cost of delivering class-room based qualifications rather than those that rely on laboratory study and more practical work is obviously lower. 

Anyway, it will be interesting to see what people post – personally I think a funding shake-up is a good opportunity to critically evaluate an educational product….but then I am not a Course Leader of a Town Planning degree.  If you are interested in contributing to the debate then all you need to do is register on the Guardian’s website and post your comments.