Development of curriculum in clean urban mobility for university of Koprivnica

Summary

The new university in Koprivnica has been the first educational institute in South-Eastern Europe to offer a programme in clean urban mobility. The programme encourages cross-border cooperation in the region and provides a sound basis for the development of Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans in cities in the region as the curriculum is built around the city’s SUMP as a framework.

Implementing sustainable mobility

The new university in Koprivnica aimed to be the first educational institute in southeast Europe to offer programmes in clean urban mobility. In this way it could offer the opportunity of training a new generation of transport professionals in this geographical area in order to acquire a new set of innovative techniques and associated knowledge that would help to change transport planning paradigms across the EU and Associated States in the region. The programme aims to encourage cross-border cooperation and learning between the city of Koprivnica and other cities in the international region and to provide the sound basis for the development of Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans in cities in the region because the curriculum is built around the SUMP as a framework. This will help to mainstream the concept as a key building block of transport planning and engineering in the region.

The main objectives of this measure were to:

• Raise the profile of clean urban mobility in the city and wider region
• Plan a university programme in clean urban mobility
• Encourage cross-border cooperation and learning between partner cities and other cities
• Promote development of Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans in the region

Progress

The City of Koprivnica has adopted an ambitious education policy which supports the development of the new regional university at the site of the former Croatian army barracks. The Croatian Government has granted the land for the future university while the city has accepted the obligation to develop three independent university programmes and have them certified by the Ministry of Science by 2015. The vision of Koprivnica as the city of knowledge is already reflected the city’s long-term education policies and in the establishment of best possible conditions in the education institutions and facilities.  A new prestigious grammar school was realised through an innovative public-private partnership financing model and the experiences will be used for realising the new University campus.

Being aware of the lack of university curricula for sustainable development at the regional level, the city wishes to establish curricula in the areas of bio-technology, mechanical engineering and sustainable transport. Training programmes for sustainable mobility planning have not been offered at any other educational institution in the region. By incorporating its sustainable transport policies into the Local Agenda 21 and the Covenant of Mayors’ sustainable energy action plan, as well as programmes and projects for the promotion of sustainable mobility, the city of Koprivnica has become the regional mobility champion and the winner of the European Mobility Award in 2008.

Currently, a local department of the Graduate School of Economy of the University of Zagreb is established in Koprivnica. The new university campus, undergoing a complete reconstruction, will become a zero CO2 emission site with an integrated fully sustainable mobility system, including electric vehicles, local train connection, campus bicycles and pedelecs. The first lecture facility has been constructed according to the passive house concept. It has become functional as of autumn 2014.

Planning & preparation

During the preparation phase the following tasks have been executed:

• Establishment of a cooperation with partner universities of Lund, Ljubljana, Zagreb and  the regional outlet of Veszprem University at Nagykanizsa, Hungary as well as universities from DYN@MO city partners: The technical university of Aachen , University of Gdansk and Lund university.
• Brief review of existing curricula on clean urban mobility from other selected EU member states
• Identification of best-practice elements and gap analysis

Implementation & demonstration

In the implementation phase the following tasks were executed:

• Development of curricula in English – development of the concept - detailed module descriptors, programme structures, learning outcomes and student assessment methodologies – to construct a programme fully compatible with the European Credit Transfer System and in line with the Bologna Agreement using the input by the SUMP competence centre. Actual teaching material (tutorial exercises, site visits, lecture notes and slides) were not produced as part of this measure.
• Potential student and expert feedback on the proposed programme, and modification in the light of this feedback. The programme was tested through an intense testing course for potential master course students.
• Validation of the programme through the Croatian university system to receive government approval.

Outcomes

Tangible outputs:

• Established expert advisory board
• Developed and tested curriculum
• Implemented curriculum

Expected outcomes in the short- to medium-term:

• Plan of the curriculum development
• Collection of best-practice examples
• Developed curriculum proposal
• Tested and possibly modified curriculum proposal

Expected outcomes in the mid- to long-term:

• Implemented curriculum
• Translation of curriculum into Croatian
• Nation and region-wide promotion of the curriculum and the university