Competences

The Master’s Programme in Urban and Regional Planning will offer you an advanced understanding of the theories, methodologies and approaches to tackle the complex socio-ecological challenges of contemporary city-regions.

With its diverse study programme of themes and learning approaches, the programme will allow you to examine and understand the governance processes that shape the social and built environment of cities; to critically reflect and address the limits and opportunities of current policies tackling the socio-ecological questions of present urbanization; to know the historical roots and path dependencies of present planning processes; and to engage with imaginative and experimental methods of urban imagination and policy making.

The programme is embedded in the social sciences research and in the interdisciplinary scholarly context of the Centre for Urban Studies. The expertise of our academic staff connects planning to geography, sociology, anthropology and political science.

Our context

With our programme, you will learn to research and carry out spatial planning looking at a multiplicity of case studies and concrete examples. You will learn to understand urban transformations across the globe. Yet, Amsterdam offers the proximate context for the programme.

You will study in Amsterdam, a city of about 850.000 people within a polycentric city-region of more than 8 million people. Known for its attention to cycling mobility, public transport, social housing, financial and knowledge economy, Amsterdam will also offer the ideal laboratory to address the challenges of social inclusion, housing affordability, post-industrial development, political engagement, ecological sustainability, cultural diversity and multimodal transportation.

Our staff offers strong linkages to local, national and international public, private and non-governmental organization.

Focus on research

The Master in Urban and Regional Planning offers a strong focus on research, in order to set a solid bases for your future practice as planner. The curriculum includes a variety of forms of teaching, studying and examination. It gives you skills to address all the steps of planning processes: to devise rigorous scientific enquiry on specific urban phenomena; to actively use a range of research methodologies in order to collect data and observations on those phenomena; to report research in an effective and synthetic way in a strong master thesis; and to deploy this knowledge in practice to devise effective solutions to urban problems. 

The programme trains you to analyse and act.

Ambition in research?

For students interested in pursuing a career as researchers, we also offer a two-year Research Master’s programme in Urban Studies.

Degree certificate

Upon successful completion of Urban and Regional Planning, students receive a Master of Science (MSc) degree in Urban and Regional Planning  (Planologie).

Key facts