The aims of this PhD programme are: to enable students of a high calibre to pursue their education at an advanced applied level drawing on the primary disciplines of economics, planning and environmental policy, with additional specialisms in finance and law; to provide students with opportunities both to build on and develop material which they may have studied at undergraduate level as well as to broaden their knowledge base; to provide opportunities for education in a multidisciplinary environment so as to advance the understanding of cognate disciplines and their applications; to provide opportunities for learning with colleagues from different social, economic and legal systems; to provide students with appropriate skills and experience to enable them to use information and resources critically and to equip them with the means to undertake their own research and to provide an educational environment with a strong research ethos that brings together students from a wide variety of backgrounds and fosters an international approach to common problems.