“By creating we think, by living we learn” Patrick Geddes
Recognising that every country has a built heritage which it wishes to preserve, the MSc programme in European Urban Conservation has been designed to enable individuals from appropriate academic backgrounds, or with relevant professional experience, to build a career in what, for many practitioners, is a vocation as much as a profession. The programme examines the physical, social and economic dimensions of what is now an international discipline, adopting a comparative approach to the European context.
In the majority of countries, protection of the built heritage is rooted in town planning practice. The EUC programme is appropriately located in Town and Regional Planning, part of the University of Dundee's School of Social and Environmental Sciences. The University, which was granted its Royal Charter in 1967, is the higher education institution which confers the Master's degree in European Urban Conservation on successful candidates.
Effective urban conservation requires a legislative framework in order that the core principles stemming from its philosophical and practical bases can be implemented. Statutory protection in turn demands a method of selecting what is to be preserved, a method of control which allows desirable and necessary works to be undertaken, effective sanctions when offences occur and a support system which includes financial aid, advice, technical skills and systematic management. The programme addresses all of these issues by following the educational guidelines put forward by The International Committee on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and being compatible with the areas of competence of the Institute of Historic Building Conservation. The programme is fully accredited by this body and has also been awarded specialist master's status by the Royal Town Planning Institute.
This exacting and challenging discipline, which has long been seen as crucial to our cultural wellbeing, must now also embrace issues as diverse as economic regeneration, sustainability and education. Reflecting political will, urban conservation can often be at the forefront of community action. As such, conservation is not just about the management of the most famous monuments and areas, the Yorks, the Pragues and the Eiffel Towers of this world. It is just as much about what the public likes, such as a modest but cherished local scene, and in some cases about things they may actually dislike - for example, some of the monuments of modern architecture. It is about technical preservation and restoration, and about emotional responses to and psychological connections with the historic built environment. The EUC programme aims to place building conservation within this widest possible context.
Nationally, there is a recognised shortage of suitably trained public sector conservation officers and within the private sector there are too few professionals accredited in conservation. The EUC programme equips graduates to take up a career in this challenging but rewarding profession.
Housed within the Matthew Building on the main University Campus, the EUC programme has an atelier ethos, providing a common studio space in which students can work independently or in groups benefiting from each others diverse knowledge and experience. The studio has a small dedicated library, and the Matthew Building also houses specialist workshops, lecture theatres, sophisticated high technology facilities and a well-resourced main library. Elsewhere on campus students can access further academic, social, leisure and support services.
Dundee itself is a bustling, friendly city, beautifully situated on the Tay estuary. It was for a long time Scotland's second city and now faces the common problem of reconciling a care for the past with concern for the future. With almost 1000 protected buildings, 16 conservation areas, a surrounding area rich in on-site case studies and good links with other historic towns and cities such as Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling, St Andrews and Perth, it is an excellent place in which to study urban conservation.
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