You will learn to see the city, to hear it, to understand it, to engage it, and to choose your role in shaping it. 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 Master in Urban Studies 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.

The 4CITIES Track is a unique two-year interdsciplinary and international programme. It has been selected as an Erasmus Mundus Masters Course. There are three separate tracks that students in 4CITIES follow: Classical, Research, and Practice. The first year is the same for all three tracks. Students in the Classical Track spend the third and fourth semesters together, following a shared curriculum in Copenhagen and Madrid. This is how 4CITIES has been organized since it began in 2008, hence “classical.” Students in the Research and Practice tracks spend their second year interning at an approved research institution or work-placement, respectively, and completing 25 ECTS of self-chosen coursework at a 4CITIES partner institution. These tracks have been designed for students who intend to pursue careers in research and practice, respectively.