<b>Robert Jones bemoans the fact that no-one wants to study to be a planner despite its re-emergence as a key profession in the new drive for sustainable development. Instead students are dashing into &amp;“cool&amp;” but, he argues, dead-end courses such as media studies</b><br><b>Figures published a few weeks ago showed that virtually none of the nation&amp;’s planning schools was able to fill its places except by recourse to the clearing house system. Whilst there are certainly some clever students who are placed at university in that way, in general terms it means that the intake of these courses is therefore being drawn disproportionally from those less academically able and least motivated to pursue the courses concerned. It seems, therefore, that few of the nation&amp;’s brightest and best want to be planners, despite the increasing profile of the profession and a requirement for increasing numbers well into the future. This in turn tells us something quite worrying about the nation&amp;’s education system, the public sector and the construction industry.</b><br><b>prestige revisited</b><br>To start with planning. It is readily apparent that, over the past few years, successive governments have attached more importance to its contribution to the way we live. These things go in cycles. …