Towards New Urban Agenda: A Radical Reorientation of Urban Planning Education in India

An urbanizing country such as India has its own development challenges given the conditions of dystopias and discontent in the urban areas. In addition, three global agendas, namely the New Urban Agenda, Sustainable Development Goals and the Nationally Determined Contributions towards climate change mitigation also demand actions in the cities. The traditional urban planning approach, based on master/development planning, and stemming from it, urban planning education, is highly technocratic and unable to deal with the reality of development challenges. In addition, urban planning education in India suffers from over-regulation and standardization, which leaves educational institutions devoid of innovation. Thus, for urban planning education to be relevant in India there is a need to revise and broaden the scope of the urban planning profession, non-standardize its contents, pay attention to substantive aspects including issues of equity and sustainability, have a future-facing approach towards dealing with climate change and rethink its pedagogic methods. However, for these changes to occur, urban planning educational institutes must take the lead and initiate radical reforms in country’s higher education regulatory system.