The Postgraduate Diploma in Planning and Sustainable Development is an introductory graduate-level course in spatial planning and development for cities, regions, towns, rural areas, and neighbourhoods. It has an international flavour and exposes students to the kind of real-world sustainability and environmental challenges that are found in public, private and community settings throughout the world.Our graduate students come from many different disciplines, so our course offers a rich learning environment for people to fine-tune their areas of interest into a practical, ethical and effective field of action with relevance in the contemporary world. For students who perform well on this course and wish to progress to a professionally recognised masters-level qualification there is an option to transfer to the second year of the UCC M.Plan course which is a comprehensive, two-year course compatible with European standards and with international professional training models for planning.The course will be of particular interest to students from developing countries who want to gain a foundation training in Planning and Sustainable Development as well as other international students who have a particular interest in studying in Ireland and have a wider interest in the theory and practice of planning. Students who do not feel able or ready to commit to two years study for the accredited qualification will find that the Course is an excellent way to gain a foundation qualification and fully assess their motivation to progress to the second year of the accredited MPlan Course.