Our city is our laboratory
With its huge port, famously multicultural population, and many multinational companies, Rotterdam – the Netherlands’ second biggest city – is an environment full of real-life cases, relevant data and research partners. Thanks to its international train station and local airport, Rotterdam is also an excellent base from which to explore Europe. English is an unofficial second language here and nearly everyone you meet is happy to speak English with you, even off-campus.
Our main campus is located in the east of Rotterdam, while the Erasmus Medical Centre and Erasmus University College are right in the city centre. You can count on safe and convenient metros, trams, buses, and trains to get around, but you’ll find that students most often make their way by bike.
A city to discover
Rotterdam is a young, dynamic metropolis which keeps developing rapidly. Sparkling skyscrapers, an impressive port, hip restaurants and food markets, renowned museums, special attractions and awesome festivals are the direct result of the can do mentality of the people of Rotterdam. Rotterdam is considered the most modern city of the Netherlands. Atypical in its own country, internationally renowned for its passion for innovation and its unpolished charms.
Rotterdam and Rotterdammers do not shy away from experiments. Rather, they are looking for them. Getting down to business and innovating, it is part of the city's DNA. Full of energy and an urge for innovation, Rotterdam reinvented itself after the bombing in the Second World War. They made a clean break with the past and preferred modern architecture. Light, air and space; it was a ground breaking idea for its time. It led to Rotterdam becoming a bubbly metropolis where these days, people from some 170 nationalities are living together.
The dynamics of Rotterdam ensure that the city lets itself be discovered again and again. Rotterdam embraces the experiment; nearly everything is possible. You are constantly surprised by new initiatives: from a city garden on a rooftop to a music festival in the docks, from an exclusive rooftop bar to a beer brewery in an old warehouse. From trees floating on water to an old swimming pool that has been magically transformed into a laboratory of the future where you can eat oyster mushrooms that have been cultivated on coffee grounds.
Welcome to our tough, lively, diverse and ever-changing city.
