18 – 19 May 2023, Tirana, Albania – The Union for the Mediterranean Urban Agenda and the UfM Strategic Urban Development Action Plan 2040 adopted in 2021 provide a roadmap for addressing challenges of urban development around the Mediterranean and proposes evidence-based, integrated and participatory education, focusing on the contextualisation of global policies such as the SDGs and the mutually reinforcing relationship between sustainable, fair, and inclusive urbanization.

The inaugural session of the UfM Meeting of Schools of Architecture and Urban Planning was organized in Barcelona, at the UfM Secretariat premisses, on 23 May 2022, to set in motion the process of review, updating and convergence of curriculums of those Schools, with a view to enhancing skills development in higher education, while facilitating youth employment, and promoting links between academia, students of architecture and business enterprises active in the region. The meeting was the occasion also to hear about the opportunities that the EC offers to universities including COST and ERASMUS+ programmes.

On that occasion, participants were encouraged to commit to working towards the review, updating and convergence of curriculums, as well as organizing training and capacity-building courses, programmes, and summer schools. This activity was conducted in coordination with the UfM Regional Dialogue on the Internationalization of Higher Education and as part of the implementation of the UfM Strategic Urban Development Action Plan.

A follow-up meeting held in Ankara, on 1-2 December 2022, and hosted by the Middle Eastern Technical University advanced in consolidating a group of academicians from across the region interested in working at a regional level. This group started to discuss different concrete actions to materialize this cooperation among schools in the region, in concrete: a COST proposal to be submitted in autumn 2023, possible Erasmus+ proposals to be defined, and the launching of a student competition on urban design.

The meeting to be held at the Polis University in Tirana will serve to advance the discussions of possible joint regional activities.

Link: Organization of the 2nd Meeting of Schools of Architecture and Urban Planning of the Euro-Mediterranean region