Enhancing Quality in Planning Education Across Europe: Towards an Ethos of Sharing and Mutual Learning in AESOP Quality Recognition
Date
2020
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Routledge : Taylor and Francis Group
Abstract
This article offers a reflective analysis of the AESOP Quality Recognition (QR) Programme, with a focus on its values, evolution, and potential to reshape how planning education is evaluated across Europe.
The authors argue for an ethos of sharing, mutual learning, and academic solidarity, contrasting this model with traditional, competitive accreditation frameworks. The AESOP QR programme is presented as a collaborative, peer-based initiative that supports schools in articulating their own educational identity, while simultaneously encouraging a broader conversation about quality in planning education.
Key points:
The programme is non-hierarchical and voluntary, emphasizing improvement and reflection over assessment and ranking.
It embraces the plurality and diversity of European planning cultures, resisting the pressures of homogenization.
The authors call for a deeper integration of relational values (e.g. trust, mutual respect, shared knowledge) into how we define and pursue "quality" in higher education.
There is also a broader critique of the marketization of academia, advocating instead for a networked community of educators who learn with and from each other.
The article concludes by envisioning AESOP QR not as a finished product, but as an evolving practice — one that embodies the collective spirit of academic co-production and supports the long-term sustainability of planning education in Europe.
Description
disP - The Planning Review, 56
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Citation
Galland, D., & Chettiparamb, A. (2020). Enhancing Quality in Planning Education Across Europe: Towards an Ethos of Sharing and Mutual Learning in AESOP Quality Recognition. disP - The Planning Review, 56(4), 140–147. https://doi.org/10.1080/02513625.2020.1906068