Abstract: Student-centered learning in higher education has long been seen as a way to both improve engagement and stimulate achievement. This is an innovative teaching method intended to influence students’ mindsets by promoting a culture of active learning that strengthens transferable skills including critical thinking and problem solving. It also encourages learners to be reflective. This case study of how this has been applied in the final year of the Masters Special Project programme in the Department of Landscape Architecture of the University of Sheffield which is renowned for it, reveals how these methods have been successfully applied. They have become an important part of the general culture in the Department and have been widely applied elsewhere.