16 January 2007 Continuing education in landscape architecture supported by Lincoln University

Involvement in continuing education and professional development has become increasingly essential for career advancement in most professions.

The New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architects – the professional body for the country's landscape architects – has a very full continuing education and professional development programme, to which Lincoln University academic staff contribute.

Lincoln University – which pioneered degrees and diplomas in landscape architecture in New Zealand – also contributes to continuing education and professional development in the landscape profession through enrolling qualified landscape architects for individual papers. Typically these are masters level subjects, which the landscape architects do on release time from their employers or businesses.

"The idea is that they can complete three 600-level papers and get a Postgraduate Certificate then, if they wish they can 'staircase' on to a Postgraduate Diploma and ultimately to a full masters degree," says Senior Lecturer Mike Barthelmeh.

Postgraduate study in landscape architecture at Lincoln University – which is where the continuing education and professional development activity fits into the picture – overlies the University's vibrant bachelor's degree programmes.

These programmes – the two-year graduate entry course and the four-year undergraduate one – have provided most of the profession's qualified landscape architects in New Zealand.

Special features of the Lincoln programmes are –

• Design studios: dedicated teaching spaces modelled on a professional office that provides students with individual work places;

• Design projects based on the community, with a focus on sustainable design, taught through small group tuition, frequent site visits, and meetings with community groups.

• An international outlook: Lincoln University publishes a respected international landscape journal, convenes conferences and hosts international visitors.

• Working with tangata whenua: The Landscape Group is committed to the development of landscapes that respect and enhance Maori values and needs and this is a component of the degree which is explored in design projects.

• Field tours: The programme runs one or more field tours each year to rural or urban communities to explore aspects and issues of design.

• Landscape Architecture Exhibition: Each year the graduating class designs and mounts a public exhibition of its design work in a Christchurch gallery.

For further information on landscape architecture courses at Lincoln University see www.lincoln.ac.nz

Ian Collins, Communications Group, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand