PLANNING EDUCATION, ACCREDITATION AND INTER-PROFESSIONAL LINKS

Abstract

Planning education is changing with the changing vision on the needs of society for the 21st century. The core ideas of planning centres on: (a) spatial - the management of competing uses of land and the making of places; (b) sustainable - that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs; ( c) integrative - that takes account of the wider set of issues plus bringing together a range of professional skills and disciplines to influence spatial planning delivery mechanisms; and ( d) inclusive - that recognises a wide range of people and opinions that shape planning. Planning is also value driven and action oriented. Professional status of planners comes through providing critical thinking that aims at achieving outcomes and not just procedures, emphasising locational relationships and inter-relationships of the sectoral on the spatial and focusing on what could and should be done based on ethics, values and facts. Based on this the paper outlines the proposed content of planning education. Accreditations of planning schools are then discussed based on the new RTPI recommendation of partnership agreements that are less regulatory and more constructive. Under this topic the qualities possessed by effective planning schools are discussed. Good examples of inter-professional links are then examined with a view towards encouraging similar programs in other Commonwealth countries.