Erasmus Hub! Rotterdam

Erasmus Hub! Rotterdam is a place for creative and active learning that stimulates students to work on their impact capacity and to have a positive societal impact. Stepping away from individual desks and learning from behind a screen, the Hub! fosters active attitudes, creative placing of furniture and connecting with people from all disciplines. The creative, flexible pop-up space can be formed into just the right environment for impact-driven education and engagement activities.

Active learning

Learning often means passive attitudes, with a teacher speaking and students listening or reading and discussing within the safety of a classroom. Active learning, however, focuses not only on what students need to know but even more so on how they engage with the knowledge. It puts everyone, both teachers and students, in an environment in which active attitudes and experimenting with a big and open space are more than common. At Erasmus Hub! Rotterdam, students are actively engaged in their own learning process through activities such as discussions, making posters, brainstorming while standing up, and applying their own ideas. The more creative and active, the better.

Impact-driven community

In addition, originating from the Impact at the Core program, the Hub! focuses on impact-driven education. In this type of education, students encounter real-life wicked problems and develop competences to increase their impact capacity.  The role of the teacher oftentimes changes in impact-driven education. As in traditional education, teachers ensure that students gain all the necessary knowledge, but guide students in their processes and reflections at the same time.

However, the Hub! is more than just a space for education. Instead, it is a vibrant community in which students and teachers from all disciplines connect with societal partners to tackle their societal urgencies. It enables students to have a societal impact both during and after their time at Erasmus University. Furthermore, at the Hub! we engage and connect with our stakeholders and society on the urgent themes that live within our city. The Erasmus Hub! Rotterdam is a creative space to make that happen.

Location and Availability

With its mission to make positive societal impact, the temporary location of Erasmus Hub! Rotterdam is in the city of Rotterdam. Placed on the south bank of the Maas and with its view on campus Woudestein on the other side of the river, the Hub! is the perfect connection between education and society. We provide a lower threshold for stakeholders to participate in an academic setting.

The location consists of one big open space that can be deployed however the education requires and four smaller project rooms. The spaces of the Hub! are available to use for all faculties and for education, research, and engagement initiatives with an impact component.

Note: The pop-up space is located in an older building and therefore lacks the presence of an elevator. For this reason, the accessibility is unfortunately very limited at this time.

The Hub! offers

• Space to offer activating education (all teaching of a course or parts thereof);

• Space where the furniture is flexible and can thus be switched between instruction, interaction and collaborative learning;

• Guidance and assistance in creating active working methods;

• Space for impact-driven education with activating and creative working methods (e.g. Design-based, experiential, etc.);

• Space for engagement activities and events with an impact component;

• Space for collaboration and networking events with (social) stakeholders;

• Space close to the city;

• Project spaces for student groups to work on impact projects;

The space can be used free of charge by all faculties and departments of Erasmus University Rotterdam (or via the Convergence). We do not allow use for commercial activities. We first assess each application to see whether it fits within the mission and vision of the Erasmus Hub! Rotterdam, before approving or rejecting it.

Should you be interested to learn more about Erasmus Hub! Rotterdam and the availability of the spaces for educational or engagement activities, please get in touch via email or phone. The Hub! works with scheduled activities and is therefore not a walk-in study or workspace.