New European initiative to advance education
Aiming for trans-European recognition of the landscape architecture profession, universities from Estonia, Poland, Hungary, the Netherlands and Lithuania, together with International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA-Europe) on board, launched a new education project “EU-Land21”, supported by the EU. The Dutch School of Landscape Architecture will act as project organization for the Dutch schools.
On 27 and 28 of October 2016, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (Lithuania) hosted the official kick off meeting of the project where the partners presented and discussed ambitious goals of this initiative. A two-year long project foresees to recruit the best experts in landscape architecture education who will elaborate tools for assessment of the existing landscape architecture study programmes and subjects according to the standards and the requirements of the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA-Europe) and the European Council of Landscape Architecture Schools (ECLAS). Then they will set the framework for upgrading and developing the study programmes in landscape architecture in the participating European universities.
Education as first step
“In the face of recent environmental, social and economic challenges, the profession of landscape architects is assigned new roles and missions of being prepared to respond to the rising expectations, and education is the first step”, – says Prof. Gintaras Stauskis, the EU-Land21 project coordinator. IFLA-Europe has developed the standards to ensure that landscape architecture training is coherent across the European continent, and that the graduates would have their professional qualification recognized EU-wide. Until now, only 83 programmes from 57 different European universities out of around 150 have received IFLA-Europe accreditation.
EU-Land21 will respond to the need of high level academic Landscape Architecture training in Europe and increase quality of education in partner’s countries by offering the sustainable tool for continuous upgrade and modernization of LA study process. As a result, international landscape architecture training will encourage trans-national mobility and employability of the graduates. The project will also strengthen the European network of Landscape Architecture experts, cooperation of whom will open opportunities for sharing and enhancement of their experience. The project results will be integrated into the existing education guidelines on European level and will influence the activities of IFLA Europe School Recognition Panel and Landscape Architecture education in the European continent in years to come.
The project “Trans-European Education for Landscape Architects” is funded under Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership programme. For more information about the initiative, please contact us: email@d-s-l.info.