The Urban and Regional Studies Unit is a research unit within the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research.It has two functions. It undertakes urban research with an interdisciplinary character, and acts as a focus for research students undertaking MA/MPhil/PhD degrees in Urban Studies.

Current PhD students:

• Huang he: A study of two urban villages in Wuhan, China
• Maria Schiller: Governing diversity in Austria, Belgium and the UK: a three city comparison
• Uwe Derksen: Culture-led regeneration in Folkestone and Margate
• Penny Bernard: Heritage-led regeneration in Canterbury and Chatham
• Asalet Tulaz: Women and urban space in Turkey and the UK

Past Masters and PhD students

• Access to housing in Tizi-Ouzou, Algeria: a case study of self-help housing processes and outcomes (T. Boussoualem, PhD, 2011)
• Local environmental mobilization In Moscow: Taganka 3 and related groups (A. Ivanou, PhD, 2010)
• Housing inequalities in Dongguan City, China: winners and losers in transition (F.S-C Chang, PhD, 2010)
• Universalism and diversity: contradictions of local cultural policy in Tower Hamlets and Oldham (M. Mirza, PhD, 2008)
• The delivery of supported housing for homeless young people  aged 16-21 under the Supporting People programme (U.Vann, PhD, 2008)
• The limits of European Union cohesion policy (B. Ozupak, MA, 2007)
• What difference do resources make? A longitudinal study of household responses to poverty in a gecekondu settlement in Ankara, Turkey (S. Eroglu, PhD, 2004)
• From grassroots to institutional politics: low income urban movements in the transition from authoritarianism in Mexico (M. Mendez Santa Cruz, PhD, 2003)
• A study of the development of new policy priorities in the cultural industries: a case study of Kent County Council 1990--1998 (Y. Ezra, MA, 2003)
• Government decentralization and its interaction with patron-client relations at local level: a review of the literature and a consideration of the Turkish case (Z. Sahin, MA, 2001)
• The myth of local government autonomy: a study of the municipal government of Maceio, Alagoas, Brazil 1986-88 (R. Lins, PhD, 2001)