PhD Thesis: Planning Education Reforms in Support of China's New Urbanisation: the Case of the Yangtze River Delta

Description

As planning in China moves towards a policy-driven approach, there is an urgent need for planning professionals with a broad spectrum of competencies to enhance governance effectiveness. However, previous studies showed a lack of diversified educational settings in existing planning schools. This study aims to provide a vision for planning education in China to meet the changing needs of planning practice in the context of New-type Urbanisation.
This research employs a mixed-method approach that encompasses desktop studies and field surveys. By comparing the evolution of planning education in England and China, this research indicates that the lack of systematic studies of pedagogical design hampers its development in a diversified manner. Surveys, involving faculty members, students, and alumni at target planning schools, and planning practitioners in the Yangtze River Delta, reveal the disparity between the supply and demand of planning graduates, especially concerning future planning tasks and core competencies. Based on the discussion of such disparity in England and China, this study underscores that the education of planners is a lifelong learning process, and the pivotal role of universities lies in preparing graduates to enter the real-world workplace.
To address these challenges, the study suggests adopting an outcome-based education approach to ensure that educational settings are designed to meet the desired outcomes from an integrated and systematical perspective. A Professional Standards Framework for supporting Systematic Pedagogical Design in Planning Education (PSF-SPD-PE) is proposed to incorporate real-world issues into the learning and teaching process in order to enhance the alignment between planning education and professional practice. It is designed to equip graduates with essential competencies that can be adapted to the evolving needs of Chinese New-type Urbanisation.
To ensure its relevance and applicability, the PSF-SPD-PE is revised through iterative consultations with education policymakers and planning-related educators. The framework is anticipated to foster a self-evaluation culture among educators, laying the groundwork for a bottom-up quality assurance mechanism that drives continuous educational enhancement.
The findings and discussions in this research are expected to shed insight into planning education innovation in China. The PSF-SPD-PE approach facilitates outcome-based, student-centred, and competence-oriented learning and teaching practices. It is envisioned that this framework will evaluate the quality of planning education in China and offer a blueprint for other applied disciplines seeking to improve their educational frameworks and overall educational quality.

Period	1 Sept 2020 → 30 Jul 2024
Examinee	Tianjie Jiang
Examination held at	Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University
Degree of Recognition	International