Dr Antoine Zammit, Senior Lecturer in Spatial Planning, Urban Design and Urban Governance at the Department of Spatial Planning and Infrastructure, within the Faculty for the Built Environment, has recently returned from Tirana where he was invited to represent Malta within the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) Schools of Architecture and Urban Planning.

The Union for the Mediterranean is an intergovernmental institution bringing together 43 Member States to promote dialogue and cooperation in the Euro-Mediterranean region The Union for the Mediterranean Urban Agenda and the UfM Strategic Urban Development Action Plan 2040, adopted in 2021, provide a roadmap for addressing challenges of urban development around the Mediterranean and propose evidence-based, integrated and participatory education.

In turn, the UfM Schools of Architecture and Urban Planning kicked off with the first meeting in 2022, with the commitment of participants to work towards the review, updating and convergence of curricula, as well as organising training and capacity-building courses, programmes, and summer schools on urban matters. Subsequent meetings have enabled the consolidation of a group of academics from across the region interested in working at a regional level. This group, of which Dr Zammit shall form part, is discussing different concrete actions to materialize possible cooperation among schools in the region.

During the meeting that was hosted by the Polis University in Tirana, between 18-19 May 2023, discussions centred on a number of research and Erasmus+ proposals and the launching of a student urban design competition across the region. A number of potential synergies between the University of Malta and other reputable institutions across the region were also discussed, for consolidation within the coming months.