14 Jul 2025
Recently, Dr Hyung Rae Cho from the Department of Urban Planning and Design at the Design School has been awarded the prestigious Academic Excellence Award in Teaching for AY2024/25 of Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, showing the university’s recognition of his transformative impact on urban planning and design education.
This follows his earlier recognition as a recipient of the Design School’s Teaching Excellence Award, affirming his sustained contributions to innovative pedagogy and student development.
“Critical thinking is not the endpoint of education, but its point of departure.” This powerful belief is at the core of Dr Cho’s teaching.
For him, the classroom is not a space for knowledge transmission, but rather a space for knowledge co-production.
“In fields like urban planning and design, students must be equipped not only with technical proficiency but also with the capacity to interpret complex realities, formulate original questions, and engage with social and spatial uncertainty,” he says.
This philosophy has guided his curriculum design, assessment models, and studio methodologies across undergraduate and postgraduate modules. Through research-informed content, seminar-based discussion, and structured yet flexible methods of inquiry, Dr Cho equips students to navigate ambiguity, embrace uncertainty, and think systemically.
Notably, he incorporates emerging digital tools such as AI, not simply as design aids, but as critical objects of interrogation. “By engaging with AI-generated outputs as a site for reflective analysis rather than solution-making, students learn to sharpen their evaluative judgement and deepen their theoretical understanding,” Dr Cho explains.
His modules, including Fundamentals of Urban Design (BNV401), Urban Design and Theory II (UPD210), and dissertation supervision (UPD305), consistently receive among the university’s highest MQ scores, which reflects more than student satisfaction, but also evidence a structured, research-led pedagogy that invites students to reflect deeply and act responsibly as future urban practitioners.
Dr Cho led the academic exchanges and collaborations via the 2025 International Planning Symposium with Seoul National University and Tongji University
Dr Cho’s commitment to student growth extends beyond the classroom. In recent years, students under his mentorship have earned the Outstanding Student Award in Urban Planning and Design, and an Honourable Award in the Yuanye Bei International Urban Design Competition, selected from a pool of nearly 10,000 global entries.
In 2024, he was also awarded the Gold Award for Supervision by the XJTLU Entrepreneur College (Taicang), recognising his ability to prepare students not only for academic excellence but for professional leadership.
International engagement forms another core dimension of Dr Cho’s educational approach. He has led a number of high-impact academic events, such as the Smart City Education Symposium (Ho Chi Minh City), the 2024 Interdisciplinary Design Workshop (Qingdao), the 2025 International Planning Symposium (Suzhou), and the forthcoming 2025 International Design Workshop (Seoul).
“These initiatives are not isolated events, but closely tied to curricular activities, enabling students to work on real urban sites, interact with international scholars and professionals, and explore future-oriented design solutions.
“They align directly with XJTLU’s strategic goals of internationalisation, innovation, and applied learning, as well as the Design School’s broader mission to foster the next generation of design leaders through critically engaged, globally networked, and socially responsive education,” he says.
Dr Cho facilitates student development by integrating research-led instruction with real-world urban design projects
“In urban design, we are not only shaping cities, but also shaping how students observe, interpret, and imagine them.
“The real value of teaching lies not in transferring answers, but in building frameworks through which students learn to formulate meaningful questions. I am deeply honoured by this award, which affirms a vision of education grounded in intellectual rigour, ethical imagination, and global relevance,” Dr Cho adds.
Story and photos provided by Dr Hyung Rae Cho
Edited by Yi Qian
14 Jul 2025