TRANSLINK

Objectives

The rate of urbanisation is growing fast in the South-East Asian Region since the major cities gener­ally provide better opportunities for generating wealth and providing to incomes. Thesecities are also very important for na­tional economic development. However, their rapid population growth threatens to hamper such eco­nomic development due to massive congestion of their transport systems and subsequent life-threaten­ing air pollution. Adequate transport policies, transport infrastructure and transport services are universally recognised as key requirements for sustainable economic development. Transportation research and engineering provides the knowledge, skills and tools for analysis and implementation of cost-effective and sustainable solutions to complex transportation and urban development problems. The overall objective of the three-year action is therefore to promote sustainable urban development in Indonesia and Malaysia by human resource development of transportation research staff and supervi­sors at two major Asian universities, the University of Indonesia, Department of Civil Engineering (UI), and The Malaysia Institute of Transport at the Universti Teknologi MARA (UiTM).  The partners are  two leading European universities, the Royal Institute of Technology, Department of lnfrastruc­ture, Sweden (KTH) and the Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds, UK (ITS).

The specific objectives of the action is to develop a lasting capability of the involved Asian universities to carry out recognised research education and training programmes at the Ph.D. level related to the complex transportation and urban problems in their region. The results can also be used to strengthen the corresponding MSc programmes of the partner universities. Furthermore the project aims include the establishment of long-term links between Europe and Asia represented by two leading universities from each region. It will also facilitate access to higher education in Europe, and increase the capability of universities in EU countries to deal with transportation research issues relevant for developing Asian regions.

The means to achieve the specific objectives include

a) Human resource development including:

• definition of need, demand and requirements for Human Resource Development (HRD) in transportation research methodology and research supervision;
• guidelines and short courses for research trainers in thesis supervision;
• short courses for Ph.D. students in research methodology and thesis writing;
• funding of two Ph.D. students from each Asian partner for study visits at ITS and KTH.

b) Support of the development for Asian Ph.D. programmes with the aim to help establishing UI and UiTM as Asian hubs of transport research and education through:

• organisation of Transportation Research Schools and Transportation Centres;
• development of guidelines for academic procedures, staff structure and responsibilities;
• exploration of institutional bottlenecks as well as funding and financial set-up.

c) Creating lasting transport research links through the promotion of an EU - Asia network

• for transport research and education including:
• regional high level scientific co-operation;
• pooling of specific expertise from the contributing higher education institutions;
• mutual recognition of study programmes at Ph.D. level;
• networking between European universities and Southeast Asian universities;
• facilitation for Asian research students to carry out part of their research in Europe and access­ing the IT, software and library facilities of their European counterparts.

The traffic in major Indonesian cities such as Jakarta, Surabaya and Bandung is very con­gested leading to high costs and low accessibility for passenger travel as well as freight. Although Malaysian cities have more modern transport systems and higher overall GNP the same type of problems are also common. One reason for this situation is the lack of adequate transport poli­cies, transport planning expertise, taxation and legal systems providing skill and resources for trans­port system development as well as restraint of car travel in congested city centres. The overall objective of the TRANSLINK project is to promote sustainable economic development through actions that will raise the level of competence on transportation issues.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

• Enhancement of the research training skills of transportation research trainers and senior lec­turers through the provision of in-country and overseas training, linked to case studies of ac­tual urban transportation problems.
• Promotion of exchange of experience and encouragement of mutual knowledge and recogni­tion of higher education study programmes.
• Support for the creation of a basis for future development, including 1) common curricula and 2) courses/modules and agreements on credit transfer and mutual degree recognition.
• Increased information about the EU higher education system in the participating Asian coun­tries in order to enhance the attractiveness of European higher education.
• Increased awareness of opportunities in the transportation research sector, and development of links that can ultimately lead to mutually beneficial economic cooperation.

Higher education in transportation at KTH and ITS addresses national as well as international needs and issues. The European partners will benefit from the proposed project since it will expose their staff and students to the real-life problems facing fast growing and densely populated Asian re­gion and cities, from where many of their students come.

BENEFITS

The European partners will benefit from TRANSLINK activities as follows:

• improved curriculum range through incorporation of developing country material in their syllabi;
• better ability to teach and supervise students from developing countries, through understanding the conditions in these countries;
• opportunity to promote university programmes in Asian countries;
• opportunities for development of research projects focusing on third world issues, and identifying possible partners for such research.

AIM

In summary, the overriding aim of the proposed project is to promote lasting and interactive transport research and education network links between the EU and South East Asia. This is achieved by HRD actions in transport education and research at the participating Asian universities with support from leading transport research and education institutions in Europe.

The ultimate target group in the Asian as well as European countries is people who have an interest in obtaining high level knowledge and problem solving capability in the field of transportation related to urban planning issues. This group of people are expected to have a substantial impact on the future transport policies and provisions of adequate transportation systems for the benefit of sustainable eco­nomic development in their countries.

Thanks are due to the Department of Civil Engineering University of Indonesia for the website style