AESOP Excellence in Teaching Award 2018

Published at: 19 July 2018

AESOP Excellence in Teaching Award 2018

THE THEME OF THE PRIZE IN 2018

Citizens in the New Urban Agenda(s)


The AESOP Excellence in Teaching Award Committee consists of the following members:

  • Olivier Sykes, CHAIR, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Liverpool, UK
  • Lukas Gilliard, Young Academics Network, School of Spatial Planning, TUM Department of Architecture, University of Technology Munich, Germany
  • Konstantinos Lalenis, Department of Planning and Regional Development, Faculty of Engineering, University of Thessaly, Greece
  • Maria Håkansson, Urban Planning and Environment, KTH – Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
  • Maros Finka, Department of Spatial Planning, Institute of Management, Slovak University of Technology, Slovakia
  • Valeria Fedeli, Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, Polytechnic of Milan, Italy
  • Xavier Desjardins, Université de Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, France

The Committee received 4 applications this year:

+ Politecnico di Milano, Faculty of Architecture, Planning, Department of Architecture and Urban Studies
 
+ University of Groningen, Department of Spatial Planning and Environment
 
+ University Stuttgart, Städtebau Institut, Department of International Urbanism
 
+ University of Ljubljana, Faculty of architecture


After a thourough review, the Award Committee announced that this year's AESOP Excellence in Teaching Award went to

the University of Groningen,


for the course

Global Course on Institutional Design and Spatial Planning

With the respect to the winner, the Excellence in Teaching Award Committee considered that, this was a very innovative module developed as a joint initiative of the planning departments of the University of Groningen (as coordinator), the University of Washington, the University of Tokyo, Renmin University of China and Newcastle University.  The Committee was impressed by the use of the online platform, which allowed teaching to be delivered by the partner schools across the globe to local students and for interactions to take place. There was attention to institutional design at different scales and how it plays a crucial role as the background to processes of decentralisation of policy responsibilities to the local level and the increased participation of private and civic actors in planning processes. The online Global Course platform allowed the students  to engage with new theoretical perspectives, and gain in-depth knowledge of international planning practice from another context. Lecturers from the partnering Universities  were able to respond to questions interactively with learners at other institutions. The students of the Global Course also worked together in small groups with students the other universities to analyze why their home countries follow a different institutional approach to solving social problems. The course was considered to prepare learners well for professional practice, providing opportunities for interactions with colleagues from around the globe,  which will be useful when working on new urban agendas in a future (international) work environment.



In addition, the following course, was also considered Highly Commended:

+ University Stuttgart, Städtebau Institut, Department of International Urbanism, Integrated Research and Design Project IRD

 

On behalf of the AESOP Community, we would like to congratulate the Winner and the Highly Commended Course and express a word of gratitude to Olivier Sykes (Chair) and the Award Committee for all their dedicated and generous work put into the selection process.

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