Graduate Profile for the
Master of Environmental Planning (MEP)

Preamble

The papers offered by the University of Waikato towards the Master of Environmental Planning (MEP) have been designed to achieve the following particular outcomes involving mastery of content, acquisition of skills and development of attributes. Learning experiences are incorporated into the programme to bring about these desired outcomes, and assessment is designed to ensure that students have the opportunity to demonstrate their achievement.

The University has developed strong relationships and networks with communities and businesses to ensure that its programmes and qualifications are relevant and responsive to our students’ needs as well as those of the community and industry. The University is also responsive to a range of social and economic goals which have been identified as priorities by Government. The generic capabilities developed by our graduates are of critical importance, as are specialist knowledge and skills. This graduate profile includes an outline of its links with other education sector groups, community groups, industry and employers who have an interest in the capabilities of graduates of this qualification, who contribute to programme planning and development and who also, in many cases, provide workplace experience opportunities.

The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences seeks in all its qualifications to familiarise students with central bodies of knowledge in the subject areas of Arts and Social Sciences, to encourage the development of the ability to analyse such knowledge critically, to provide the skills needed to articulate their knowledge and positions and to contribute to the extension of knowledge by research.

The MEP is a one-year advanced programme which enables and requires candidates to extend their knowledge of planning acquired in their undergraduate and first graduate qualifications, and to engage in independent research.

Mastery of Content

It is not expected that the MEP degree in itself will ensure a full range of core competencies in planning, but, in addition to the knowledge and skills acquired at undergraduate and honours graduate level (or their equivalent), graduates of the MREP degree will have advanced academic knowledge of:

• The philosophy, theory and methods of planning, traditional and contemporary debates in planning
• The physical and social processes which constitute the natural and built environment; the social and economic consequences of managing the natural and built environment; the complexities of interactions between people and their environments; the financial and other drivers of development processes
• Managing the natural and built environment through methods for environmental evaluation, impact assessment, and development consent processing systems; managing urban space, amenities and heritage; indicators for sustainable development; planning for social, cultural and equity issues
• The theoretical dimensions of planning practice through and application of theoretical and methodological principles to policy and plan preparation, goal setting, creation and use of planning instruments
• Institutional contexts for planning practice including an understanding of government and policy formulation, the planning process, planning procedures, Treaty of Waitangi and environmental law, and related areas of policy and law
• Recognition of the Treaty of Waitangi and its implications for planning practice, the principles of the Treaty and environmental law; protocols and relationships with iwi; Maori values and Treaty issues
• Knowledge of quantitative Quantitative and qualitative research methods, including different forms of data collection, forecasting techniques, risk assessment, design and aesthetic consideration, geographic information systems; and experience with some of these
• Knowledge of consultative Consultative techniques, including mediation and negotiation
• Knowledge of resource Resource consent processing and assessment
• One or more specialist fields of knowledge.

As an applied ’ masters degree with a research component, the programme will encourage higher level applied research into aspects of environmental planning.

The main aim of the degree is to encourage students to develop specialist knowledge, breadth and depth of understanding, and independent judgment, in relation to planning practice. Students who are conducting their internship will be asked to reflect on academic planning literature in the light of their practical work experience. The internship structure proposed for this degree provides an ideal way to encourage close interconnections between theory and practice across a broad range of issues, topics and work practices.

Acquisition of Skills

Graduates of the MEP will have:

• the ability to collect, present, interpret and evaluate qualitative and quantitative data with particular regard to observation, interview, survey, etc. procedures
• a capacity to synthesise and integrate information
• experience in policy and plan preparation and evaluation
• experience in monitoring and reviewing techniques
• the ability to analyse, overview and scope problems
• the ability to evaluate research and pedagogical methodologies and develop critiques of them and, where appropriate, to propose new hypotheses
• the ability to effectively communicate information, arguments, and analyses in a variety of forms, to both specialist and non-specialist audiences
• the ability to apply underlying concepts and principles outside the context in which they were first studied, including the application of those principles in an employment context
• the ability to conceptualise, design and implement a project and to adjust the project in the light of unforeseen problems
• the ability to work and negotiate effectively in a team, and to produce work collaboratively
• the ability to locate, evaluate and use information in a range of contexts, in both print and electronic form
• competence in written, verbal and graphic communication .

Development of Attributes

Graduates of the MEP will have:

• an understanding of gender, ethnicity and equity issues
• an awareness of personal values and respect for the values of other people
• experience in team problem solving and a capacity to work in interdisciplinary teams
• sensitivity to professional and personal ethics
• a capacity for self-evaluation and assessment of one’s own work, and the ability to modify and change in the light of such evaluation
• the willingness and ability to learn and continue learning, to appreciate that learning is continuous throughout life
• a capacity for sound professional judgement and independence of judgment
• an appreciation of the uncertainty, ambiguity and limits of knowledge
• the ability to exercise initiative and personal responsibility
• the confidence to make decisions in complex and unpredictable contexts
• the learning ability needed to undertake appropriate further education
• self-direction and originality in tackling and solving practical and academic problems
• the confidence to act autonomously in planning and implementing tasks
• an understanding of ethical issues related to professional practice and academic research.

Graduate Pathways in Further Education

Students who successfully complete the MEP with high grades may continue onto a MPhil and PhD in Environmental Planning or related fields.

Community and Workplace Prospects

The MEP is a professional qualification designed for graduates of the University’s BSc and BSocSc(Honours) programmes and for students who are already in the workforce and wish to up-skill or consolidate a career in environmental planning. The programme requirements will enable students to undertake study while they are working.

The MEP programme aims to provide an avenue to professional recognition in environmental planning for Honours graduates of the University’s BSc REP and BSocSc REP programmes and for practicing, but unqualified, planners in the region.

The MEP will provide graduates with a qualification that is recognised by the New Zealand Planning Institute as a qualification for membership. Membership of the New Zealand Planning Institute is the only membership recognized by planning agencies and employers in New Zealand as a professional qualification for environmental planning.

Every year the Department of Geography receives enquiries from planning practitioners in the region (Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Hawke’s Bay and East Coast) asking about programmes that will enable them to up-skill and qualify for membership of the New Zealand Planning Institute. Some of these students are ones who left with a Bachelor of Social Science or Bachelor of Science in REP, have practiced for a few years and established themselves at work, and find that to progress in their career, they need a professional degree.

A named qualification is often seen as providing an edge in the competitive employment sector. In the field of planning, practitioners regularly need to give evidence of a legal or quasi-legal nature (eg before district or regional councils or the Environment Court). A named degree in Resource and Environmental Planning gives a stronger claim to professionalism than a general degree such as the Master of Social Science.

Networks into Other Sectors

The programme is intended to make students think about the larger social and professional context within which they work; about how and why they practice the ways that they do; and to weigh up the ethical and practical consequences of different planning methods and approaches. It is intended to encourage students to develop the expertise, confidence (and courage), to make sound professional judgments even when these are not consistent with those of their employers. These skills require the development of intellectual independence, a mature understanding of planning as a coherent field of study, and a confident grasp of the technical and process content of planning.

In relation to New Zealand’s national strategic goals for education, the MEP is particularly relevant to the goal of environmental sustainability, in that it enables and encourages students who want a career in environmental planning to pursue their training to the level of a higher degree; and it will enable unqualified practitioners of planning to up-skill themselves. It will encourage the pursuit of quality research on projects of a practical nature that are closely related to environmental planning practice. Because students undertaking the degree will be in the workforce, they will be in a good position to identify problems that are particularly relevant for environmental practice.

The MEP will encourage closer relations between employers and University staff in respect of practical environmental problems, and increase the chances of collaboration between University and environmental agencies and resource use industries.