Urban Planning Education in Thailand: Preferred Skills of the Graduates and Issues on Curriculum daptation

Abstract

This article is a study to clarify preferred skills of the graduates, driven factors that will affect changes on urban planning education, and points for curriculum adaptation in the future. The research methodology is to interview the chairmen or the relevant persons of all active urban-planning-related courses in all higher educational institutions in Thailand. Then, collected data is processed and analyzed, sorted, and classified to suggest guidelines of courses’ curriculum adaptation for the future.

            It is found that preferred skills of the urban-planning-related graduates are as follows; 1) ability to adapt theories to practice, 2) skill to always learn new things, 3) academic and knowledge synthesis skill in practical exercise, 4) negotiation and speaking skills, 5) teamwork and cooperation, 6) data management skill, and 7) critical thinking and public communication skills. Then, driven factors affect changes on urban planning education in the future are mostly social and environmental factors, and the other remarkable factors are, Digital Lifestyle, Public Administration Development, and Decentralization of Administrative Power. At last, points for urban-planning-related curriculum adaptation are; 1) Shifting existing education to lifelong learning, 2) Adhering to the principles of urban planning, 3) Setting sustainable development as the ultimate goal, 4) Preparing for uncertainty, and 5) Networking.

            Urban planning is a profession which is involved with several sectors in the society. Hence, lifelong learning oriented future urban planning education should encourage students to be open-mind and enthusiastic in acquiring new knowledge. Therefore, the future education should enable urban-planning-related personnel to brush up their skill whenever they want, and should make ordinary people in the society have better understanding in urban planning issues.