BA Urban Studies
DURATION
3 Years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
Request application deadline
EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2024
TUITION FEES
EUR 2,314 / per year *
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* First year bachelor students: the statutory tuition fee of the academic year 2023-2024 for first-year bachelor students is €1157 | required to pay the institutional tuition fee for the academic year 2023-2024: €12,500.
Introduction
Cities are more relevant than ever. They play an increasingly important role in the issues of this time: climate change, inequality, safety and health. Our Urban Studies programme gives you the opportunity to be a problem solver, teaching you how to develop real-life answers to today’s and tomorrow’s urban challenges.
Why Urban Studies?
In 2050, around 70% of the world's population is expected to live in urban centres, while at the moment, cities already are home to 55 %. This offers a vast number of social and economic opportunities, but at the same time, the challenges of urban growth are daunting. As a student of our Urban Studies programme, you will develop the academic and practical skills needed to deal with the challenges of urban life.
Do you want to know all about cities?
In this English-taught bachelor’s programme, you will explore a wide range of urban issues while working both in the classroom and in the field: the city itself. You will build a solid academic foundation, studying the theory of urban development, the development of cities, and the expected further developments. Additionally, in the course of the programme (second and third year), you will work on real-life urban challenges. Together with our non-academic partners and stakeholders, you will develop policy-relevant solutions for concrete urban problems.
In the course of the programme, you will acquire a solid set of methodological and professional skills in the field of urban studies. They will help you prepare for your future career – whether this career will be in academia, business or the public sector. Field trips to major Dutch cities, our career orientation programme and individual and group-based research projects guarantee valuable, hands-on experience.
Uniquely, you will have the opportunity to tailor the programme according to your personal interests by focusing on one or several of our themes: the sustainable city, the multicultural city, the safe city and the healthy city. In the second year, you will choose your specialisation courses. In the first semester of your third year you will have the opportunity to do an internship, study at a university abroad or do a minor, consisting of a selection of courses of your choice. During the final semester of your study, you will combine a practical course on urban problem-solving with the pièce de résistance of your Urban Studies experience, your final thesis.
Why Urban Studies at Leiden University?
- This bachelor’s programme is unique in the Netherlands in its multidisciplinary approach, incorporating disciplines from the humanities, social and natural sciences and law.
- Lecturers who belong to the top in their field.
- English-language teaching.
- Excellent facilities in the heart of The Hague, seat of government and home to a wide range of international and national organisations.
- Hands-on experience in research projects and field trips. Opportunity for study at a university abroad (in the third year).
- A lively community of international students and lecturers.
- Opportunity to follow your interests and map out your further career.
- Perfect preparation for a career in academia, the public or private sector.
Ideal Students
Is Urban Studies the program for you?
- Do you want to study urban challenges from multiple angles, looking beyond Urban Planning?
- Do cities fascinate you?
- Do you want to have the opportunity to make a real change?
- Do you thrive in an international environment?
- Do you want to be challenged into out-of-the-box, creative thinking?
- Are you interested in looking at cities from many different perspectives?
- Do you enjoy learning about urban history, psychology, biology, statistics, and much more?
Admissions
Scholarships and Funding
Leiden University has a number of scholarship programmes for international students. There are also a range of scholarships offered by Dutch governmental and EU organisations.
Curriculum
The Urban Studies bachelor’s programme is based on two learning trajectories. One is dedicated to knowledge related to urban issues, while the other focuses on a wide range of practical and academic skills.
Year 1
Cultural Diversity in Urban Contexts
The population of any city does not consist of one single group of people. It consists of many different groups that are distinguished by e.g. socio-economic or ethnic backgrounds, language, age, sex. Naturally, this superdiversity has an effect on life in the city, in many of its aspects. This course gives an overview of issues related to cultural diversity in the city. You will study this topic from comparative, historical and sociolinguistic perspectives. Among other things, you will learn to identify the key role that culture plays and how cultural and linguistic diversity affects societies at local, national and international level.
The Material City
This is the age of climate change, which has an effect on all of us and which also has an impact on cities. In this course you will focus on several sustainability issues. Tomorrow’s cities will increasingly need to reuse and recycle materials and be much more self-sufficient when it comes to the supply of energy and water. You will learn how to identify and describe aspects that include the main material elements of cities and cities’ environmental impact.
Year 2
In year two you will deepen your knowledge by following lectures in the programme’s four themes: the sustainable city, the multicultural city, the safe city and the healthy city. Courses on all themes include individual and group assignments, where you gain hands-on experience of the issues involved. In two of the four themes you will take elective courses to deepen your understanding of these themes.
The Sustainable City
While their high population density make cities major users of resources, it also creates opportunities for innovation in sustainability. This theme focuses on the importance of sustainability, cities’ role in the circular economy, policies to fight urban pollution and waste, and the cultural and ecological changes taking place at urban level.
The Multicultural City
This theme investigates differences in culture, language, citizenship, religion, ethnicity, class, wealth and gender. It discusses how multicultural, multilingual cities like Rabat, Singapore, and Montreal develop, how they deal with their diversity, and how this affects the ways that people interact with one another.
The Safe City
This theme shows how cities can be both dangerous and safe at the same time. Highlighting contemporary debates about violence and crime, it covers a wide range of topics. Some of these are city governance, the police, street gangs, the rise of transnational crime and how crime is portrayed in art, culture and the media.
The Healthy City
The negative aspects of urbanisation, such as slums, poor sanitation and air pollution do not automatically translate into poorer health. Densely populated cities, for example, often offer the most accessible healthcare. This theme will help you understand relevant concepts and debates about urban wellbeing, welfare and health.
Year 3
The first semester of the third year offers you the flexibility to pursue your interests. You can either follow electives or a minor from another programme, do an internship in the Netherlands or abroad, or study abroad at a university in our network. Our Career Service can support you in finding a position as an intern.
Our Outbound Student Coordinators can help you find the best option for you if you wish to study abroad. Leiden University has an extensive network, offering you a lot of opportunities!
In the second semester, you will follow a Literature Seminar. In Urban Studies in Practice you will work on a real-life-challenge and to conclude the programme, you will do research and write an interdisciplinary thesis on one of the themes you have specialised in. Examples of recent thesis titles are:
The sustainable city:
- ‘Inclusive climate resilience in the city of The Hague’
- ‘Role of income and ethnicity in urban green space accessibility: a qualitative case study of Moroccan and Turkish communities in The Hague’
- ‘The influence of environmental education on sustainable behavior: a recommendation for Dutch schools’
The safe city:
- ‘Social effects of community urbanism: A practical Approach to evaluating community gardens’
- ‘French Far-Right Candidates and Their Negative Image of the City’
- ‘Planned vs. Lived: An Analysis of the Planning Practices and Relations of Power Involved in Addis Ababa’s Integrated Housing Development Programme’
The multicultural city:
- ‘Black Feminist Practices of Community Building as Reclamation of the Right to New Orleans Post-Katrina’
- ‘Regional identity beyond the national among Maghrebi immigrants: How football and demographics have shaped identity in Marseille in opposition to the French national identity’
- ‘Residential and Socio-Spatial Segregation in Global Metropolises: Lessons on Multiculturalism from Vienna and New York’
The healthy city:
- ‘Elderly in the Car-Free City: Relation between Mobility, Stress and developments towards the Car-Free Model’
- ‘Stress and Social Quality in the Urban Environment’
Program Tuition Fee
Career Opportunities
After graduating from the Urban Studies programme you will have acquired invaluable skills that are sought after by employers looking for new staff and by universities selecting candidates for master’s programmes. These skills include:
- Independent thinking
- Writing texts for specific audiences
- Working in teams
- Analysis of spatial environment
- Analysing information
- Methodology, such as understanding and using statistics
- Designing research programmes that relate to urban problems and their solutions
- Orient yourself on the labour market
During various moments in the Urban Studies programme, you will be given insights into the career options open to you after graduating and the steps you can take during your studies to achieve your career goals. The programme includes, for example, the course “Professional Orientation”, which will be offered in the second year.
Also, you will meet with various professionals working in relevant sectors during the course of the programme, which will give you additional opportunities for career orientation. The Urban Studies programme has excellent connections with organisations working on urban challenges. This means that you will have first-hand information about current issues as well as related career opportunities from academic experts and practitioners in guest lectures.