6 September 2005 Landscape Architecture a Passport to Global Employment Opportunities (Education Feature, Sunday Star Times)

"One degree, two campuses" expresses a special feature of Lincoln University's Bachelor of Landscape Architecture qualification, uniquely offered and taught both in New Zealand and Singapore, and accredited by the professional landscape architecture bodies in both countries.

The first group of students wholly taught in Singapore has just graduated and they received their degree parchments in a ceremony in Singapore on 29 August attended by the New Zealand High Commissioner.

The teaching in Singapore has enabled the Lincoln University landscape architecture programme to engage with "serious questions of global urbanisation and metropolitan planning on a mega scale", says Lecturer Neil Challenger, programme leader for the degree.

"Lincoln's landscape graduates end up working all over the world, so it's important that we provide students with exposure to examples of major urbanisation during the course of their studies.

"Similarly, Singaporean students benefit from exposure to the New Zealand experience of design in a temperate climate and a less densely populated country," he says.

Lincoln launched Australasia's first fulltime postgraduate course in landscape architecture in 1969. A bachelor's degree, the Bachelor of Landscape Architecture, was added in 1988, followed by a master's programme, and in 1997 the first PhD in landscape architecture was awarded.

The most important element of Lincoln University's approach to landscape architecture is its focus on integrated design, says Professor of Landscape Architecture Simon Swaffield.

"Our students learn to re-shape urban and rural environments to create exciting, sustainable and distinct places in which to live, work and play.

"Design is as much about people and culture as about spaces and environment," says Professor Swaffield.

Students come to Lincoln from all parts of New Zealand. Relevant school subjects for those thinking ahead to doing landscape architecture at university include art and design, English, geography, economics, biology, mathematics and history.

Many students come to study landscape architecture seeking a vocational education after being away from school for a while or engaged in other degree studies.

With undergraduate entry, the BLA course is a four-year one, but there is also an entry option for graduates of related disciplines, in which case the course is two years. There is a masters degree option too.

The international stature of Lincoln's landscape architecture degrees is important and it means that the University's graduates can and do work globally. There are Lincoln graduates working at senior levels in the profession in Europe, North America, the Middle East, China, South East Asia and Australia.

"It's actually a case of 'one university, many international markets'," says Neil, "and that's got to be an appealing message for today's mobile young generation when thinking about qualifications and their value as passports to employment."

For information on Landscape Architecture studies at Lincoln University visit www.lincoln.ac.nz

Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand