About Master SPRING

The Department of Spatial Plan­ning at the Uni­ver­sity of Dort­mund and the Department of Plan­ning at the Kwame Nkrumah Uni­ver­sity of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana, launched the SPRING pro­gram in 1984. When the Asian In­sti­tute of Technology joined in 1989, SPRING expanded into a multilateral network. AIT was replaced in 1995 by the School of Urban and Re­gio­nal Plan­ning at the Uni­ver­sity of the Philippines. With the Uni­ver­sity College of Lands and Architectural Studies (UCLAS) in Tanzania, another African partner joined the network in 2002, extending the focus of the curriculum to urban plan­ning and management. UCLAS meanwhile became an independent tertiary institution, the Ardhi Uni­ver­sity. In 2006, the SPRING network expanded to South America. The Universidad Austral de Chile complemented the pro­gram with a new focus on environmental economics in plan­ning. Since 2020, the Universidade Federal do ABC in Brazil enriches the network with its special study focus on plan­ning, governance and public policy for sus­tain­able urban agglomeration.

Firstly accredited in 2007, the SPRING pro­gram regularly (2012, 2019) undergoes evaluations conducted by certified accreditation agencies.

Due to its outstanding performance, the SPRING program received an award in 2006 as one of the top 10 in­ter­na­tio­nal Master’s degree programs offered by German universities.

Objectives

The SPRING pro­gram combines teaching in development theories and strategies, plan­ning concepts and methods, and implementation and monitoring tools with practice-orientated field studies aimed at elaborating regional development plans and programs in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The pro­gram content is based on the specific socio-economic problems in the developing world.

SPRING places its emphasis on development management at an intermediate level (e.g. district) between macro-regional and community-based plan­ning. Development plan­ning is seen as a problem-oriented management tool with the following objectives:

• to identify development problems, trends, resources, constraints and potentials
• to formulate development objectives, policies and strategies
• to de­sign plans and programs
• to assess environmental impacts of plans and programs
• to organize target group participation and decision-making processes
• to apply instruments for pro­gram implementation and management and
• to evaluate and monitor plans and programs

Competences

A SPRING planner should be able to collect, process, analyze, interpret and compile social and economic data; to understand and critically reflect on concepts and theories underlying spatial development and plan­ning; to proj­ect key social and economic indicators into the fu­ture; to translate target group requirements into land use plans, projects and programs; to understand at least the basics of all major sectors of regional development; to have a good command of plan­ning, group facilitation and conflict resolution techniques; to critically appraise processes of spatial development at all levels against the backdrop of globalisation and accelerated urbanisation; to de­sign and conduct plan­ning-oriented empirical re­search; to write clear reports, manuals and memos.

Therefore, the SPRING pro­gram provides students with the following set of competences:

• a broad inter-sectoral knowledge and skills across three major regional development plan­ning fields: natural resource plan­ning, physical infra­structure plan­ning and socio-economic development plan­ning.
• the capability to de­sign regional development activities in a pragmatic, problem- and action-oriented manner
• the competence in applying the three major action phases of the plan­ning cycle: analysis, plan­ning and implementation
• the ability to reconcile participatory plan­ning from below with the requirements of plan­ning from above and the frame­work set by national policies
• the capability to combine various personal characteristics such as logical thinking, flexibility, creativity, organisational and communicative skills

Achievements

The SPRING pro­gram prepares regional development planners and managers for employment in the public sector at central, regional or local govern­ment levels, private sector, NGOs and in­ter­na­tio­nal organisations. About 750 graduates from over 70 coun­tries have completed the pro­gram so far. They now hold leading positions in diverse fields such as teaching and re­search, regional development and urban plan­ning as well as in national ministries and in the development sector.