European Masters Course

Master's Hat Developing a European Masters Course in the Integration of Renewable Energies in Buildings

LEARN is the coordinator of the EU DGVII Altener Programme Project TEACHRENEWPACK. This is a project to develop a European Masters Course in the integration of renewable energy technologies into buildings.

The project partners are six European universities:

University of North London (School of Architecture)
University of Athens (Department of Applied Physics)
University of Oporto (Engineering Department)
ABITA a consortium of Schools of Architecture in Universities in Florence, Milan, Rome and Naples
Polytechnic University of Barcelona (School of Architecture)
University of La Rochelle (Building Engineering Department)

The European Commission White Paper envisages that 12% of energy supply should be from renewable sources by 2010. With about one third of EU energy consumption occurring in buildings, the incorporation of renewable energies in buildings will play a vital role in helping to achieve this target. The integrated education of architects, physicists and engineers in this field is essential to the practical realisation of the Commission's objectives.

The project is concerned to produce educational materials and syllabuses leading to the establishment of a validated framework and course structure for the teaching programme. Where possible the course will be integrated with compatible Masters courses in the participating universities.

Students will sign up for the course at one particular university. It is envisaged that there will be two core modules which will be taught in the first half-semester of the year at several of the Universities. In addition a variety of specialist modules will be provided by each university which will reflect the expertise of that particular University. Students will be required to follow some of the courses away from their base university.