Urban Studies

Overview

As the world continues to urbanise and globalise, cities are becoming the predominant form of human settlement and the scale at which many of the most pressing societal issues are engaged. 

The Urban Studies programme at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) brings a distinctly European viewpoint to issues concerning urbanity and urbanisation that are simultaneously locally unique and globally networked.

The Standard Track of the Master in Urban Studies is jointly organised by Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Université Libre de Bruxelles. 

The 120 ECTS curriculum combines the attractiveness of a flexible, modular and interdisciplinary programme that allows you to focus on your own interests, with a common core of compulsory courses to ensure that you develop the necessary urban skills and competences.

Focus

• Globalisation - the processes of globalisation and localisation - as a general context leading to a renewed importance of the city and urbanity in the 21st century. The city is considered a nodal point in post-national developments.

• Europe as the unit of analysis: Europe and the European unification process is seen as part of and a reaction to this globalisation processes. Our scope is Europe seen through its cities and urban networks.

• Interdisciplinarity and internationality as a surplus value. The Master in Urban Studies is a thematic masters programme focused on transdisciplinary approaches and transdisciplinary practices (not the least bridging urban planning and urban sociology, geography, etc) with a focus on the socio-spatial analysis of cities.

• An education build on strong cases: Brussels (capital of EU, small global city) – Copenhagen (the Scandinavian mode of regulation), Vienna (metropolis at the centre of Europe: gateway to the East), Madrid (the Mediterranean cities) and a number of surrounding cities.

• The importance of fieldwork: research experience in each city and comparative or transnational research as the basis for a final masters thesis.

• A number of excursions and visits: a central attractor will be that we incorporate well prepared excursions in each block. Each excursion will incorporate a socio-spatial introduction to the city (a city walk) and an institutional visit with a focus on certain aspects of policy or management. Moreover a number of projects and institutions will be visited.

Accreditation

All degree programmes offered by VUB are accredited by the Dutch-Flemish Accreditation Organisation (NVAO), ensuring that they meet the highest predefined quality standards. Alongside this official quality control system, VUB has an internal Quality Control Commission in charge of permanently monitoring the quality of education.