SPRING - Spatial Planning for Regions in Growing Economies – (M.Sc.)

SPRING (Spatial Planning for Regions inGrowing Economies) is a two year Masters degree programme, where spatial planners address up to date topics of spatial planning in development countries. For instance they are discussing the rapid growth of megacities, searching for solutions in the conflict between environmental protection and economic development as well as dealing with strategies to improve traffic systems. The course starts with one year of study in Dortmund, Germany, followed by a second year at one of the four partner universities in Asia, Africa or Latin America. At the TU Dortmund University SPRING is with now more than 25 years the oldest Master course and was the first one being conducted in English.

Governments in Africa, Asia and Latin America have initiated new regional development strategies based on national decentralisation policies in order to reduce regional disparities. The management of the new decentralised administrative units (districts, regions or municipalities), however, is rarely commensurate with the new requirements.
Planners are increasingly challenged to overcome the boundaries between administrative sectors, and to bridge the gap between formulating a plan and implementing a programme. New qualifications are required, ranging from planning competences to management skills, i.e. to make programmes operational with respect to financial requirements and restrictions or to moderate multi-stakeholder participatory processes.
Taking into account a gap in adequate training for development planning and management in the developing world, five universities in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe are co-operating in the SPRING programme.