Groningen, Netherlands
DURATION
3 years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
Request application deadline *
EARLIEST START DATE
01 Sep 2025
TUITION FEES
EUR 13,100 / per year **
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* Dutch, EU/EEA and non-EU/EEA students
** for Non-EU|for EU/EEA EUR 2,530
Key Summary
Introduction
If you have a special interest in the living environment, and you aspire to combine analytical thinking with creative design, then Spatial Planning and Design is the field for you.
What effect will climate change have on our future cities and rural areas? How can you develop sustainable strategies and designs for new and existing urban systems? How do you deal with a complex built environment and related planning processes? Planners are asked to translate this kind of spatial transformation into new opportunities to enhance the quality of life.
The Bachelor's degree program in Spatial Planning and Design (in Dutch: Technische planologie) revolves around physical and institutional design. The course units are related to spatial planning and design, water management, infrastructure and environmental planning, spatial computer programs, complex decision-making, and academic research.
You will work in virtual realities but also go on excursions to see spatial projects in real life. There will be an opportunity to develop your personal interests via elective course units. You complete your Bachelor's degree with a research project. Excellent students can take part in a more in-depth program at Honours College, which has a wider range of topics.
Why study this program in Groningen?
The Bachelor's degree program in Spatial Planning and Design is unique within the Netherlands. It covers a wide range of topics and gives students the opportunity to explore their own fields of interest within physical and institutional design. This degree program gives you the opportunity to learn from internationally renowned and highly trained teachers.
Research
Spatial Planning and Design is based on research. Not only are you educated to become a researcher, but lecturers also use their own research and others to keep the education as recent and relevant as possible. The education you receive is therefore partly based on the research being done at the faculty right now!
Curriculum
Year 1
- Power of Design (SD) (5 EC)
- Urbanism and Planning (SP) (10 EC)
- Economic Geography (10 EC)
- Statistics 1 (5 EC)
- Introduction to Academic Research (5 EC)
- Spatial Design Atelier (SD) (10 EC)
- Geographic Information Systems (10 EC)
- Spatial Design Standards and Conditions (SD) (5 EC)
Year 2
- Mobility and Infrastructure Planning (10 EC)
- Physical Geography (5 EC)
- Urbanism Atelier (SD) (5 EC)
- Water and Planning (10 EC)
- Governance Dynamics (SP) (5 EC)
- Philosophy of Social Sciences (5 EC)
- Statistics 2 (5 EC)
- Landscapes (5 EC)
- Methods for Academic Research (SPD) (5 EC)
- Related elective: Global Course or Comparative Urbanism (5 EC)
Year 3
- Minor or Optional Modules (30 EC)
- Environment and Engineering (5 EC)
- Planning Dynamics (5 EC)
- Bachelor's Project (15 EC)
- Environment and Planning (5 EC)
Study abroad
- Study abroad is optional
- For an average of 15 weeks
- Maximum of 30 EC
Every year dozens of students of the Faculty of Spatial Sciences go on exchange with a foreign university to take electives and/or write their thesis. The faculty has exchange arrangements with universities in Europe, New Zealand, and the USA.
Admissions
Gallery
Career Opportunities
Job prospects
The degree program's interdisciplinary curriculum offers students the opportunity to work in different fields in practice or research. The Netherlands is an international leader on planning topics such as water management and sustainable mobility, and an established expert thanks to its long-standing planning history.
The degree program offers knowledge that is both locally embedded and globally relevant. Graduates of this degree program are highly qualified for both the national and the international labor market.
During the program at the University of Groningen, we offer support for your career preparation.
Job examples
Policy advisor or policymaker in the public sector
In spatial planning, environmental planning, mobility and transportation, water management, or design
Consultant
For large or small consultancy agencies: GIS, spatial planning, or engineering companies.
Project developer
For real estate companies
Postgraduate researcher or teacher
At spatial academic planning institutes