Country Profiles of International Planning Education in Europe

Within the many changes happening at the global level, the integration by the end of 1992 of diverse European countries in a unified EC will represent one of the major socioeconomic and political accomplishments to happen at the eve of the twenty-first century. This integration is intended to produce a Europe infused with a “continental mindset” and totally open, in all sectors, to academic and professional mobility. Planning as an academic discipline and a profession will influence and be influenced by this process of unification. Already, planning schools and their representative organization AESOP, see their roles, activities, and future in a different emerging context. To mediate the differences among the countries, in language, legislation, institutions, and planning processes, the planning schools are turning whatever they have as international planning education, inwards and toward each other. They seem to shy away from their historic attention to the problems of less developed countries; many seek to shift their attention to Eastern Europe and the rising economies of the Pacific Rim.

The country profiles presented in this paper reflect on an extensive survey of seventy-four European schools of planning, and personal interviews in twenty-six of these schools. Their perspectives vary within a country and between countries; their assessments of the strengths and weaknesses of the planning programs are candid; and their intentions for the future of international planning education in Europe beyond 1992 are insightful and very telling of major shifts.

In the conclusion or epilogue are a summary and comments on the positions of the European schools. The implications of their future intentions for international planning education are highlighted.