APL100 Introduction to the Profession of Urban and Regional Planning

APL 100 is the first course of the master degree in urban and regional planning. The course introduces students to the academic field and the profession of urban- and regional planning. Furthermore, it introduces the students to the system of higher education. The course orients the students by providing an overview of the study program, amongst others by inviting the course responsibles. This gives students Insight into the study's content and enables them to plan and organize their individual study plan.

Augustblokk: Lectures, individual and group work. An excursion of 2-4 days, and more shorter excursions will be arranged. The course focuses on approaches to land use planning and land consolidation, through lectures given by local experts, technical discussions, practical exercises and presentations. Supervised by the teachers, students will participate in a case-related group work which includes a presentation.

Autumn: Seminars introducing the Norwegian planning system, main planning challenges in Norway, planners' societal roles and responsibilities and the most relevant fields of knowledge in planning, such as morphology, architecture and urban design, health and well-being, land use and transport planning, property development, environmental planning, urban sociology and residential planning.

Diverse exercises for developing academic skills, such as literature search, critical reading, reflection and discussions, writing. Group work, presentation and oral exam.

The learning outcomes of APL 100 are as follows:

• The students will recognize the key features and structure of the Norwegian planning system. They will be able to identify the most important formal types of plans, distinguish between them and be enabled to explain how different planning levels are connected.
• The students will be able to identify and describe typical challenges of urban and regional planning.
• The students will be able to distinguish the different disciplines which are relevant for urban and regional planning. Through this, the students will be able to recognize some opportunities and challenges related to interdisciplinarity in planning.
• The students will apply this new interdisciplinary knowledge to a real-world case by exploring some concrete planning challenges having in mind the interdisciplinary perspective
• The students will be able to identify and consider questions related to the societal role of planners and their responsibility for societal development and the environment.

Academic and professional skills

• The students will develop preliminary skills in searching literature in the field of planning. They will also develop their critical thinking through reading and discussing this literature with peers.
• The students develop skills in presenting and communicating their work to peer groups of students and teachers and in class discussions.
• The students will identify and apply methods of working and presenting which are used in planning professions.
• The students will start to develop academic skills such as: literature search, critical reading, constructive reflections and discussions, academic writing.