Graduate + Student Employment

School of Design Dr Ed Wall

Graduate + Student Employment

Landscape architecture education at the University of Greenwich has an international reputation developed over fifty years. Confident, knowledgeable and skilled landscape architects have graduated from Greenwich, the oldest programmes in the country, going on to become leading landscape designers, landscape planners, garden designers, urban designers and occasionally academics in the UK and abroad. As one of the elite design and construction chartered professions, amongst architects and engineers, our education is both explorative as well as being finely honed towards professional practice mainly in landscape and environmental consultancies, where students become the creative and professional consultants who ensure that our world becomes a better place to live in whilst fulfilling their client briefs. Our aim is and has always been to prepare our graduating students for work, and to accomplish this we not only provide the necessary education in theory, technology and design but we promote interactions with industry employers and consultants—many of whom also studied at Greenwich—in five ways. Firstly, our students regularly meet with professionals in their design reviews where external consultants are invited to critique the design work and to talk about their own offices and approaches. Secondly, we organise live design projects where students work with designers and clients to realise physical projects. Third, we take students to visit offices and sites, both in the UK and abroad (when we are on field trips), to get a real impression of real office environments and where the students are exposed at first hand to the workings of an office and a particular consultancy’s approach, ethos and methods. Fourthly, towards the end of the year we also invite consultants as well as recruitment agents to engage with students with their portfolios and CVs, explaining what employers are looking for and how to create and curate a portfolio and how to engage with a potential employer from the outset; from the initial letter and introduction, to presenting the portfolio and oneself. Finally, our engagement with the Landscape Institute through our review group and our external examiners provides students with an excellent knowledge and future network from which to develop their careers. Employers regularly approach Greenwich as they have opportunities for landscape graduates as well as developing long-term agreements with the University to employ our students. Our engagement with consultants strengthens our alignment with the profession but also provides our students with an amazing resource which could not happen without the generosity of time, and energy that is brought into the University by the profession. In this respect, we would particularly like to thank Jennifer Mui (MRG Studio), Carl Thomas (LOCRI), Armel Mourgue (Gillespies), Helene Saulue and Leighton Pace (Exterior Architecture) and Donncha O Shea (Gustafson Porter and Bowman), Mais Kalthoum and Helen Stokes (Agence Ter), Melissa Woolford (Museum of Archietcture), Woody Yao (Zaha Hadid Design), and Jane Pelly and Graham Dear (The Royal Parks) for their generous contributions.