Research And Exploration Of Basic Urban And Rural Planning Teaching In China

The social and economic transformation at the onset of 21 st century has caused a shakeup in urban and rural planning education. The promulgation of the revised Guidelines on Urban Planning by government in 2006 signaled that "urban planning is shifting from technical-based to public policy-oriented"; the Laws and Regulations on Urban Planning published in 2008 put an end to the dichotomy of China’s urban and rural development, which hereafter moved towards integration. In 2011, urban planning major was separated from architecture studies as an independent discipline; urban planning major was re-named as "urban and rural planning" in 2012; Guidelines and Standards for Urban and Rural Planning Major in Higher Education Institutions was made to public in 2013, etc. Furthermore, the rapid urbanization brought China into the “urban era”(with over 50 per cent of urban population) in 2012; the land-driven economy that long plagued China had resulted in a high-level urban space waste and serious environment degradation. However, the notion “new urbanization” proposed in the 18 th CPC National Congress in 2013 was designed to put an end to this reckless growth mode, and the Central Government Conference on Urbanization convened on the same year specified that urbanization in China reached certain degree of saturation. This wide array of changes has already raised an urgent question to both urban and rural planning professionals and academia, that is, how to make sure the basic education, similar elementary program offered also by architecture studies at university-level, can distinguish itself and meet the developmental demand of this new age.Based on the problems faced by urban and rural planning education, this thesis, first, studies the nature of “urban” and “rural”: though both provide a place for people to live, they represent different ways of living; second, the thesis explores the nature of “urban and rural planning” and clarifies that urban and rural planning should serve for people and people’s way of living, target on the urban and rural space, and plan under accurate scientific projections, and further points out that urban and rural education should focus on “people”. Lastly, citing the education reform at Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, the thesis discusses the possible model that can be employed in basic education phase, introduces some reforms carried out in course syllabus, teaching materials, and pedagogical methods, etc., which as a whole can be seen as an effort to apply a professional way of thinking throughout university years.The thesis is an attempt to discuss how basic education of urban and rural planning should be conducted in China, and to separate basic education for urban and rural planning from architecture studies. The thesis also can be regarded as an effort to bring the pragmatic college education to its nature. The thesis concludes that there is no need to lay down a set of universal standards for basic urban and rural planning education. An in-depth understanding of university education, a clear outlook for scientific development and a set of well-oriented professional training objectives are the preconditions for a well-targeted yet all-round basic education model for urban and rural planning major.