Especially the Urban Governance Lab was crucial for shaping my career path
Aurelia Schwarz
Alumna Urban Governance of Inclusive Sustainable Cities
I have always had a great interest in topics related to the urban realm. However, with my academic background in cultural and tourism studies, I felt the need to dive deeper into the managerial and administrative aspects of urban development during my master’s studies. That’s why I chose the master Urban Governance of Inclusive Sustainable Cities.
The master’s degree Urban Governance of Inclusive Sustainable Cities was a suitable option for me because it offers a broad overview of today’s cities’ complex challenges. The Master studies the different ways of tackling these issues in an interactive and collaborative way, while also encouraging students to delve deeper into their areas of interest in individual research projects - all in just one year!
Creating strategies
After completing the programme, I have moved back to my home country Germany to start my first job in a consultancy firm that deals with diverse issues as city management and marketing, retail analyses or integrated local development. Hence, the tasks and responsibilities of my job tie in perfectly to the curriculum of the Urban Governance of Inclusive Sustainable Cities track. Especially the opportunities and challenges related to citizen participation in urban governance are reoccurring themes when creating strategies and concepts which attempt to integrate citizens’ everyday knowledge for the sake of developing context-specific and effective strategic measures.
The combination of practice-oriented and theoretical seminars made the joint master’s degree of the IHS and ESSB so enjoyable to me! Especially the Urban Governance Lab was crucial for shaping my career path. Students collaborate intensively in small groups during the governance lab to create strategic advice during full-day sessions for both real-life and fictional case studies. The strategy-making and -presenting methodology we acquired during the lab not only prepared me well for becoming an urban professional but - most importantly- incited my interest in the field of public sector consulting.
A great learning and networking experience
Besides the Urban Governance Lab, my master’s thesis on urban resilience let me get valuable insights into the challenges the Dutch municipalities of Rotterdam and The Hague faced when leveraging the lessons learned during the corona crisis into urban resilience strategies. The strong connections between the faculty and the municipality of Rotterdam granted me the unique opportunity to combine my thesis writing with a policy analysis commissioned by the city of Rotterdam – a great learning and networking experience!
As a final note, I should stress that while the restrictions related to the corona crisis had a significant impact on student life during the past academic year, the highly collaborative approach of the master’s programme allowed me to connect and learn from my international fellow students nevertheless – even in the hybrid or digital format.