Master's Degree Course in Regional Science / Spatial Planning at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

About

Many public and private measures affect space. Particularly, large-scale infrastructure projects such as dams, power plants, roads, railway lines, new cities or new urban quarters are rightfully often seen as characteristics of a modern and prospering state. Yet some of these facilities also have undesirable effects which appear to be the result of faulty or incomplete planning. The reason for this is that despite being perfect in terms of technical execution, these projects fail to consider the manifold factors on the local and regional level, trading off the initial planning objective for unwanted side effects. In fact, any planning scheme and any public measure with regard to space also affects regional social systems, the regional economy and the complex interplay of a region's natural factors, its regional ecology. Therefore, a sustainable spatial planning approach needs to analyse and consider these influencing factors when it comes to non-sectoral and coordinative planning on the local, regional, and international level. The mission of the Institute for Regional Science (IfR) is to apply this broad approach to spatial planning in both its research and teaching activities, a mission which is successfully realised in the IfR's internationally accredited Master's degree course in "Regional Science and Spatial Planning". For many decades, students from all over the world have successfully completed this programme and are working in leading and expert positions with national and international employers. In the framework of this Master's degree course, a German-Chilean joint programme is also offered, including two semesters in ConcepciÃ³n (Chile) and Karlsruhe (Germany) respectively. This programme puts a special emphasis on regional development and spatial planning oriented at natural and technological hazards. It teaches students to extend the traditional view of development cooperation, which is centred around the notion of poverty, to the notion of vulnerability. Additionally, a new German-Argentinian joint programme, which includes two semesters in Karlsruhe (Germany) and CÃ³rdoba (Argentina) respectively, is offered. This programme focuses on regional science and environmental changes, particularly on anthropogenic pollution of air, water, and soil and the treatment and management thereof.

Requirements

Entry Requirements

Applicants should have a Bachelor's or German "Diplom" degree in a scientific discipline with a spatial focus, like spatial planning, urban planning, geography, economy, sociology, ecology, or agrarian and forestry sciences. Ideally, they should have practical work experience in the above-mentioned fields.