International Co-operation and Urban Development: Darmstadt University of Technology

The Interdisciplinary Master's course International Co-operation and Urban Development addresses the rapid urbanisation process in countries of the South and looks at possibilities to prevent or alleviate the problems invariably associated with it. Conventional wisdom of town planning has proven to be of little use to deal with the situation: the highly complex phenomenon calls for innovative and complex responses that incorporate physical, managerial, economic and social elements simultaneously. Adequate professional methodologies develop in the field and cannot be copied from the text books. Therefore this Master's course will provide up-to date knowledge about the relevant current theories and practices of urban development planning - especially in countries of the South and in the East. Since a large proportion of investments in this field involve foreign aid and finance, a second focus is placed on international co-operation (in which there still exists a great and unsatisfied need for well-prepared experts).

The two-year course is innovative in its transdisciplinary set-up, arranging knowledge around an emerging global phenomenon rather than starting from the conventional division between academic faculties. Most of the lecturers are internationally-distinguished scholars and practitioners in the topic of their respective training module, which guarantees a top-quality level that could not be attained by a course relying only on the university's home faculty. The multi-national composition of both students and academic staff fosters the building of a personal world-wide professional network - an indispensable asset in this particular professional setting.

The first year of the Master's course is dedicated to an integral understanding of space, society and technology in urban development in the context of proceeding globalisation and is geared towards the capability to conceive, oversee and evaluate comprehensive urban projects in the sense of sustainable development. The second study year provides scope for further specialisation in a field of the student's personal interest, knowledge or professional obligations. The resulting personalised qualification allows a graduate from this course to subsequently fill a professional niche unmet by the conventional university system.

The modules taught within the course include:

• Urban Development Strategies: strategic and micro planning; response to globalisation pressures; urban governance; regional planning
• Urban management, governance: decentralisation; participatory budgeting; land management; programme and project funding
• Housing policies: tenure and finance; micro-credit; neighbourhood upgrading; large housing estates; self-help housing
• Physical planning, urban design and ecology: urban design, participatory planning, cultural heritage development
• Sustainable urban infrastructure and technology: sanitation, mobility, healthy cities, disaster mitigation
• Conviviality and culture: millennium goals and poverty reduction, conflict management and violence prevention; gender mainstreaming; migration and urban social segregation
• International co-operation skills: project planning and project cycles; costing and evaluation methods; aid and funding agencies, fund raising, publicity strategies
• Academic skills: research methods, surveying, tuition and presentation didactics
• Free elective choices from all university faculties (in German)