Master Urbanism

Our society, climate, technology, and the way we humans use our cities are facing immense changes. The purpose of urbanism is to respond to these changes and create futureproof, climate-resilientfuture-proof, and inclusive cities through our research, design, and practical processes. In this master’s program, you’ll learn how to effectively combine design intelligence with a reflective attitude and practical skills. The competence-based curriculum is geared towards mastering seven crucial competenciesprogra: design, research, collaboration, communication, entrepreneurial skills, organization, and professional practice. You’ll gain experience and education beyond the school curriculum by combining your study with employment in a professional environment. Additionally, the academy itself is a laboratory for spatial assignments from real stakeholders, and the studio is the perfect place to apply new skills and methods to create design proposals for complex spatial problems.

Why this master

• Our programme is designed in such a way that you’ll work and study at the same time. You gain creative research and design skills at our academy, while developing practical skills at your workplace. On top of this, you can earn a salary
• You’ll be part of Fontys Academy of the Arts, a creative learning community
• Our tutors are professionals from a variety of disciplines with a strong relation to practice
• The program has a vertical structure that synergizes working and studying at the same time, encouraging you to become an independent and critical thinker in approaching real-world and future challenges
• Our international environment gives you a broad view of real-world problems and hands-on solutions to tackle these challenges
• As you’ll work in our design studio, your tutors will emphasize personal attention to guide you through the design and research process
• After graduation, you’ll be eligible to register immediately in the Dutch Architecture Register and start working as an (independent) urbanist

What does your week look like

The course is carried out in a 40-week intensive program. You’ll work in the Design studio at Fontys in Tilburg one day per week. Alongside this, self-study comprises 10 hours and practical work 20 hours per week. You’ll follow theory classes once a week.

Fontys is one of the largest universities of applied sciences in the Netherlands and offers a variety of bachelors and masters programmes in English. We have the largest number of international students than any other university in the Netherlands, with students of more than 80 nationalities from all over the world.

Despite the large student numbers, education at Fontys is organised on a small scale. At Fontys, internationalisation is a key issue. We offer English-language education to foreign students who wish to follow complete course programmes and/or to foreign students visiting us as exchange students. Quality is the key feature of the Fontys vision. We strive to achieve a level of quality that will match that of any higher education institution in the European context.

Fontys focuses particular attention on the parameters necessary for ensuring the smooth progress of studies, such as study career supervision, coaching and a ‘buddy’ system, education and examination timetables, feedback regarding assessments and assignments, study progress registration, information provision and the accessibility of teaching staff.

We strive to be an educational institution that ‘inspires growth through support & challenges’. This is also something that you will notice throughout Fontys, i.e. in the course programmes, in the teaching staff, in the personal supervision that you will receive and in the facilities available. At Fontys, you will learn in conjunction with others and we will provide you with intensive supervision throughout this process.

Who We Are

Fontys provides education and research. As a broad-based university, we are the largest public knowledge institute in the southern Netherlands. Fontys wants to be an innovation engine by linking its education and research to innovation processes within and outside the regions. Fontys has a large impact due to its education and research in almost all sectors of society. Because of our representation in key positions in almost every sector, everyone who lives and works in the southern Netherlands comes into contact with Fontys, either directly or indirectly. We educate large groups of talented young adults in a great many professions. After their training, we meet them as colleagues, as internship coaches, as partners in cooperation and/or research or as professionals who wish to enrich or deepen their knowledge.

Our organisation is in good order. Students and employees are satisfied and give us ‘seven minus’ and ‘seven-plus’ respectively. Fontys is financially healthy and the quality of our education is also in good order. The basic qualities that we demand of ourselves are sustainably anchored in the control and accompanying evaluation cycles. We regard ourselves as a knowledge and innovation partner of regions and professional fields.

Educational vision

Technological, societal and economic developments influence and change the world around us, now and in the future. Fontys delivers an important contribution to these necessary changes by meeting more than the needs of the student and the world of the future. Our significance also lies in our effect on the implementation of the changes in society – regional, national and international. Our added value lies in our proactive role – in the joint designing and development of a sustainable and fair society.

We deliver this added value by linking talent development to change in societal sectors and fields of work. Our function as an open knowledge institute is to provide the form by linking education and research to current societal issues. This is how we contribute to innovation in the field of work, the professional context and social sectors. We form the regional, national and international agendas in cooperation with our social partners. We are proactive and future-oriented so that we can have the necessary impact on society, today and in the future.

We deliver this added value by investing in talents. For us, talent is a personal natural aptitude or characteristic that enables you to contribute to society. Talent allows people to use their strengths. Fontys is there for everyone who wants to discover and develop their talents at the higher vocational level and everyone who wants to continue their professional development. We offer space to all cultural and social backgrounds.

Our Ambition

The core of the assignment that we give ourselves and the promise that this entails to students, the professional field and society consist of two elements:

We offer students the prospect of being able to discover their own talents and develop into start-ready professionals who accept social responsibility, contribute to innovations in their professional field and continue to develop optimally in their own way. We work on innovations in the professional field on themes that are relevant to the regions. Here, we work together with the government, institutes and companies on research and development for innovation in the region and invest in the ecosystem in which students and employees can (continue to) professionalise.

Fontys has a clear social assignment: offering inspiring, challenging and high quality higher vocational education and the execution of practical, research that has significance for society. Education and research are appropriate for current and future questions and the needs of the student, the professional field and the (regional) society. We want to formulate, prioritise, research and, if possible, resolve the questions of the future jointly with our partners.

Our Mission

Quality is the key feature

Fontys aims to be an educational institution that is ‘inspiring growth through support & challenges’ and to be an educational organisation at which students can grow and learn to think more laterally, i.e. to ‘think bigger’. Fontys aims to achieve these objectives through the provision of support and challenges to its students, staff and all relevant stakeholders.

The core objective is to promote an organisation-wide mentality that will result in continuous attention for quality improvement in terms of education, content and processes. Fontys focuses on Bachelor education and Master degree programmes financed by the Dutch government. The education is organised well and provided in professional education environments. Fontys strives to achieve high quality, embedding its activities solidly within society, whilst achieving a leading position as a knowledge institution, both nationally and in its regional environments.

Quality is the key feature of the Fontys vision. Fontys strives to achieve a level of quality that will match that of any higher education institution in the European context.