The careers of students who have graduated from the Department of Environmental Planning and our predecessor institutions demonstrate the wide range of job opportunities available to our graduates.
As one would expect, a large proportion have made successful careers in the mainstream planning profession, but many have chosen a path in other related disciplines, and we aim to illustrate that spectrum here.
Graduates of the Department are to be found in many of Scotland's local authority planning departments. Jim Corbett (BA(Hons) 1994) and Fiona Roche (MSc 1996) are with Glasgow City Council. Among graduates from previous years at this authority are Sarah Shaw (nee Cameron) (MSc 1990) and Iain Mason (BA(Hons) 1991). Other more recent graduates with local authorities include Allison Russell and Gillian Anderson (all BA(Hons) 1995) who are with North Lanarkshire Council, Jamie Mackie(BA(Hons) 1999) with Renfrewshire Council, John Essery (BA(Hons) 1997) with Inverclyde Council, Lyndsay Tough (BA(Hons) 1997; MSc 1998 )and Lynn Murray (nee Taggart) (BA (Hons) 1998) with North Ayrshire Council, and Stuart Mearns (BA(Hons) 1997) and Bob Robertson (MSc 1996) who are with Highland Council.
Graduates who have been appointed to chief planning officer roles include Ian Snodgrass (Dip URP,1972) who is Director of Planning and Transport at Renfrewshire Council, Sheila Terry (nee Fitzsimmons) (Dip TP,1972), Head of Planning and Transportation at Falkirk Council, and Alan Neish (Dip TP,1978), who is Head of Planning at East Ayrshire Council.
Graduating students have also joined Planning Departments elsewhere in the United Kingdom. These include Robert Thompson (BA(Hons),1991) at Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council, Sharon Davies (MSc URP,1992) who works for the London Borough of Haringey, Frances Birch (BA(Hons) 1996) with West Lindsey District Council in Lincolnshire. Marie Higgins (BA(Hons) 1999) at Stockton -on Tees Borough Council.
However, it is not only in the planning departments of local councils where graduates have pursued their careers. Irene Nicoll (MPhil,1979) and Leslie Milne (MPhil,1979) both hold senior positions in the Housing Department of the Glasgow City Council, while George Sneddon (MPhil,1978) is City Centre Director for Glasgow City Council. Mike Thomson (Dip URP 1979) is Head of Strategy and Performance at Clackmannanshire Council, David Dunlop (BA(Hons) 1983) is with the Economic Development division of Renfrewshire Council.
Graduates who have found employment in the Local Enterprise Companies include Murray Collins (MPhil,1978) who is with Scottish Enterprise Lanarkshire, and Gordon Kennedy (MPhil 1982) who has a senior position with Scottish Enterprise Glasgow . Ewan Mearns (MSc 1991) is employed by Scottish Enterprise the national enterprise and economic development agency, .
Graduates have also been employed by central government. These include Janet McNair (MPhil 1974), David Russell (MPhil 1977) and Jill Moody (Dip TP 1978) who work with the Scottish Executive Inquiry Reporters Unit, and David Leven and Ben Train (both BA(Hons) 1996) who work in the Planning Services Division of the Scottish Executive Development Department.
The Department and its predecessors have had an excellent record of attracting students from overseas, who have gone on to pursue their careers at home and abroad. A selection of these include; Teng Fong Pang (MSc,1993) who works for the Singapore Housing Authority; Ibrahim Al-Nowaiser (PhD,1995)who is a senior civil servant in the Saudi Arabian Royal Court, and Ahmed Abalkhail (PhD,1993)who is Director of the Ministry of Communications Planning Department in Saudi Arabia. Marianne Stenvaag (BA(Hons), 1991) is an oil company executive in Norway, while Torunn Moen (BA(Hons),1993) is in Norwegian local government planning and Eli Havnen (BA(Hons),1994) is with a Norwegian environment and planning consultancy.
Returning closer to home, the private sector also attracts graduates of the Department. Allan Miller (BA(Hons),1991) and Mike Andrews (BA(Hons) 1991) work for Wimpey Homes Holdings as Planning and Land Managers, Kevin Pocklington (MSc 1995) is with the Glasgow-based planning consultants Hall Aitken Associates. The Glasgow-based property consultants James Barr also have employed a number of graduates, and these include Victoria McSherry (BA(Hons) 1996; MSc 1998), Andrew Edgar (BA(Hons) 1997) and Teri Sweeney (BA(Hons) 1998).
Education and research is also a field into which our graduates have entered professionally. Ronan Paddison (Dip,1974) is a Reader in the Department of Geography of the University of Glasgow, and Robin Boyle (Dip,1973) is a Professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, USA, having moved from his position as Head of Department here. Foreign students who have returned overseas to the education field include Andrew Allan (PhD,1993), who is a lecturer in the University of Adelaide in Australia, and Asmatullah Khan (PhD,1994) who is a lecturer at the University of Peshawar in Pakistan. Entrants into the research field have included Nicola Morrison (PhD,1992) who is with the Property Research Unit of the Department of Land Economy at Cambridge University and Sandra Taylor (MSc,1994) with the European Policies Research Centre at the University of Strathclyde.
Our students have also entered careers in related development, conservation and support agencies. They include Joanna Douglas (BA(Hons) 1991)who is with the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency, David Payne (MSc ,1992) with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Craig McLaren (BA(Hons),1988) who is the Chief Executive of the Scottish Urban Regeneration Forum, and Jackie McAllister (BA(Hons) 1991)who is with Govan Initiative.
Those mentioned above provide a necessarily brief indication of just some of the range of career opportunities available to graduates of our courses. We would like to wish all of them, and also all of their fellow graduates not mentioned here, continued success in their chosen careers.