BALANCING TRADITIONAL AND NEW EDUCATION APPROACHES WITHIN A POSTGRADUATE PROGRAMME IN ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki launched in 1998 a one-year postgraduate programme in ‘Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development’. Among other objectives, the programme complements the Faculty’s traditional undergraduate curriculum by introducing these modern disciplines and, at the same time, the new concepts and ethics that relate to environmental engineering. In the paper the presentation of the programme’s elements and functions and the discussion about the factors and conditions that had specific influences on them concludes a critical overview of the old and new ethics in engineering culture as well as a review of current trends in educational approaches related to environmental protection and sustainability issues. Given the solid nature of the civil engineering education obtained by the Faculty’s traditional five-year undergraduate programme, the challenge to shift immediately to the new paradigm of contemporary environmental education programmes, in structuring the short-duration postgraduate programme, was given a careful consideration. The final decision was a rather moderate one, as the Faculty opted for a flexible course balancing traditional and new educational approaches