Human Geography and Planning is a programme in which you learn many different things. Planning is mainly about designing and intervening in the space around us. Discussing things like sustainability, climate change and gentrification. Human Geography, on the other hand, is more about understanding and explaining places, looking at things like globalisation, demography and human behaviour.

In the first year, we did a project, conducting research in a neighbourhood in Almere. Aspects such as mobility, housing and public space were included in a vision we created for this neighbourhood, which sought to build numerous new homes. Where are we going to build? What will it look like? Retain greenery or build housing there? Will all stakeholders agree? There are many aspects to think about. All groups represented a different stakeholder and actually interacted with the group they represented. For example, the municipality, but also developers, residents, corporations, entrepreneurs and travelers were involved in the project. This was a really fun project where everyone enthusiastically presented their own vision!

The best thing about this programme are the theoretical subjects who are actually applied in practice. The topics covered in the lectures are often very current and this makes you look with 'geographical perspective' to everyday things. Examples from Amsterdam are often used and you see these examples with your own eyes on the street the same day. The active study association Sarphati binds many people and friendships at the study and organises all kinds of fun things like a weekly 'drink' together, various trips and educational activities. First-year and senior students know each other because of the small scale of the programme, which only makes the environment very sociable!