Division of Information Technology, Engineering and the Environment
School of Natural and Built Environments
School of Natural and Built Environments
Associate Professor Jon Kellett
Planning at UniSA is 60 this year and so the celebrations started early to coincide with the actual anniversary of the first classes in Planning held on 14 February 1949.
To mark this significant occasion the Planning Discipline group
organised a day long Planning Education Symposium in the Basil Hetzel
theatre. A notable array of eminent speakers from around the world
contributed to a great discussion of the nature and future of planning
education. Andreas Faludi from Delft University began the proceedings
with a lively look back at the development of planning education in
Europe and the US, outlining the different perspectives which drove its
development and set it on various distinct directions.
He was followed by Bruce Stiftel, Head of Urban & Regional Planning at Georgia Tech and former chair of the American Collegiate Schools of Planning. Bruce extended the perspective, reporting on his worldwide survey of planning schools including fascinating insights into planning education in Asia and Africa. Dory Reeves form Auckland University then rounded off the morning with a thought provoking discussion of how we can achieve excellence in planning education.
The afternoon continued the international theme with Lee Lik Men from Universti Sains Malaysia giving an extremely lively presentation on scenario planning as a valuable teaching approach to urban planning. Two presenters from Australia, Caroline Whitzman and Trevor Budge, form Melbourne and Latrobe Universities, brought the debate back to Australia, addressed the interesting questions of the appropriate balance between theory and practice in planning education and the nature and rationale for ten so called Melbourne model, the new structure of 3 year undergraduate and 2 year postgraduate which the University of Melbourne has applied across its entire education portfolio.
The most heartening aspect of the whole day was the amount of
audience participation and incisive questioning which the speakers and
their topics stimulated. After an hour’s debate, which could have easily
run to another hour, the Symposium wound up to allow guests to move up
to the Adelaide Town Hall for the 60 year celebratory dinner.
Two hundred and fifty sat down to dinner and enjoyed a splendid
evening’s entertainment from a range of invited speakers. Graduates and
staff from as far back as the 1960s attended. The strength and depth of
the combined output of the Planning programs from UniSA was clearly
evident as was the high level of continuing engagement between the
University, its graduates and the profession. A presentation to Steve
Hamnett to mark his 25 years at the University, most of that as Head of
the Planning Discipline, demonstrated the heartfelt appreciation of
Steve and the program as the audience rose to give him a standing
ovation.
The papers from the Symposium details of upcoming events during 2009 are
available on the
60 Years of
Planning Education website.
To view more images please visit the Image Gallery.
