The Department of Urban & Regional Planning, Faculty of Built Environment, UTM was privileged to have received an official visit by the APSA Executive Committee on the 11th and 12th of August 2014.
The high profile delegation comprised Prof. Yukio NISHIMURA (Former APSA President, Prof. Chu-joe HSIA (APSA President), Prof. Anthony Gar On YEH (APSA Secretary General ) and two APSA xecutive Committee Members, Prof. Mack Joong CHOI and Assoc Prof. Jian LIU.
The Asian Planning Schools Association (APSA) was founded in August 1993 to formalise a network for exchange and collaboration, and in particular to enhance urban and regional planning education and research in Asia.
40 planning schools in Asia, including those from the University of Tokyo, Tsinghua University, Seoul National University, National University of Singapore (NUS), Institute of Technology Bandung (ITB), Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), and the Department of Urban & Regional Planning, Faculty of Built Environment, UTM, are full members of the Association.
The visit on the 11th of August was to formalise the organisation of the upcoming 13th APSA Congress 2015 which will be held tentatively in the middle of August 2015 at the Department of Urban & Regional Planning, Faculty of Built Environment, UTM. Amongst the items discussed and finalised were the congress theme, guidelines for abstract & paper submission, registration, congress programme, congress venue & access, guidelines for presentation, technical tour, accommodation, facilities & services, travel information and website development.
The APSA Executive Committee was also briefed on the Bachelor of Urban & Regional Planning programme curriculum followed by a discussion and experience sharing on planning education as practised in other planning schools in Asia.
On the second day of the visit, a Pre-APSA 2015 Postgraduate Colloquium was held at the Convention Hall B12, Faculty of Built Environment, UTM. The morning session saw the presentation of papers by Prof. Yukio Nishimura (University of Tokyo), Prof. Mack Joong Choi (Seoul National University), Prof. Anthony Gar On Yeh (Hong Kong University) and Prof. Chu-Joe Hsia (National Taiwan University). In the afternoon, six postgraduate students presented their papers covering topics in urban planning, architecture and landscape architecture followed by an interactive session with invaluable feedback and constructive comments from the four APSA Executive Committee Members
