Project

Despite the fact that European regulations (e.g. concerning environment, competition, or standardisation) have an increasing impact on professional work of landscape architects across Europe there are still no standards regarding the content of European higher education of landscape architects. To assure the quality of university programms regarding relevant European teaching contents for landscape architecture and to enhance the comparability of universities (and hence equal opportunities for students) the development of elective courses within Teaching Clusters is proposed. The individual universities will contribute their sectoral expertise so that students of landscape architecture can profite from these offers throughout Europe. The project goal is to establish a comprehensive European wide university strategy instead of fostering individual universities.

EU-teach is the first stage of a two stage process, which second phase deals with the specific development of teaching offers, organisational and legal questions etc. for finally developing and implementing a teaching cluster among landscape architecture universities.

The basis for developing teaching clusters (stage 2) is stage 1 dealt with in this project: The definition of Relevant European Teaching Contents of higher education for landscape architects and the development of a qualification profile all over Europe. An exemplary university analysis is carried out by means of the qualification profile. This analysis will reveal, amongst others, the expertise and possible development potential of the universities involved. The analysis results with the presentation of expertise and possible development potential is, among other factors, the first rough basis for developing the teaching cluster.

Most universities can hardly fulfill the requirements regarding Relevant European Teaching Contents, research or other activities on their own because of their lack of financial and staff resources. Particularly since the Relevant European Teaching Contents include a broad based knowledge and know-how (amongst others about environmental laws, competitions, standardisation). Therefore there is an imbalance between the individual universities and, as a consequence, a lack of comparability of teaching contents. Providing the universities of landscape architecture with sufficient capacities at short notice is highly unlikely. The development of teaching clusters at universities involved throughout Europe will cause the joining of individual expertise to one usable, shared and optimised "education cluster". This is important for guaranteeing the quality and necessary quantity of higher education regarding Relevant European Teaching Contents. Universities can serve other European universities for landscape architecture with their expertise (e.g. specialisation on specific topics, outstanding technical equipment, contacts to international institutions, etc.) due to the teaching contents developed by the universities and professionals of the branch all over Europe. The qualification profile can be guaranteed as practise orientated and in line with the market as the European Federation for Landscape Architecture (EFLA) is involved. Students will strongly benefit from this full (wide) range of experiences and offers and universities can focus and target their (often limited) capacities. This will also enhance the attractiveness of Europe as an area of higher education. Thereby the main targets of the Bologna process such as the comparability of education, quality assurance, the enhancement of professional qualification and equal opportunities can be pursued.