About the programme
The MSc in Global Urban Change, formerly known as Urban Management and Development, is a 12-month English-taught programme offered at IHS. It provides students with a broader understanding of contemporary urban challenges, as well as sustainable and just transformations, while offering an international and diverse classroom environment. Rather than following a rigid path, participants can design their studies through flexible specialisations tailored directly to their career goals, focusing on climate change and environment or socio-spatial transformations.
Cities are changing fast, but each city changes in its own unique way. To address this, at IHS, we are moving beyond the conventional disciplinary boundaries of traditional urban development, planning, and policy. The Global Urban Change programme requires students to look past these labels and rethink how cities are studied, shaped, and sustained. You don’t just study what a city is; you investigate how it changes. Participants explore integrated, sustainable approaches - such as harnessing nature-based solutions, navigating the complexities of a circular economy and managing vital resource flows like water and air. The curriculum also examines social, economic, and technological forces shaping cities, evaluating housing and land policies, identifying innovation as a central driver of growth, and analysing the financialisation processes influencing everyday urban life.
The MSc programme is an international post-initial master's degree designed to equip students with the skills to understand how different urban problems connect on the ground, convene key stakeholders to make positive impact, and turn ideas into actions that make cities more resilient, sustainable and future proof. In addition to its high-quality academic content, a key feature of the programme is its global perspective, driven by comparative discussion of urban issues, policies, and trends from around the world. By participating in this programme, students will not only learn how to navigate global changes but also acquire the cross-disciplinary skills necessary to shape the forces that define our urban future.
Specialisations
How is the year organised?
The first period lays the groundwork for the programme. After discussing some of the key debates shaping urban studies today, such as climate and post-colonial urbanism, and financialisation of the city, the focus shifts to urban complexity. How do different challenges connect, overlap, and shape each other? A housing shortage, for example, is also a political conflict, an environmental question, and a story about land, capital, and inequality.
Alongside these courses, students follow methodology and research design modules, from reading and discussing urban change to studying it: formulating the right research questions, working with empirical evidence, and developing an independent analytical approach.
Following the core courses, students select from a range of deepening modules to specialise further in their chosen field. The topics vary from nature-based solutions and circular economy to digital transformation, land use, and social justice. These courses allow participants to go deeper into (urban) issues that matter most to them, whether it is their interests, thesis or future career path.
To ensure the right tools support their research, participants also select one of four specialised methodology courses: Impact Evaluation, Machine Learning for Policy, Comparative Urban Research, or Participatory Research.
These courses combine theoretical insights with practical application, bridging broader urban questions with concrete cases, tools, and professional practices.
The final part of the programme, from April to August, is dedicated to the Master’s thesis. Throughout the year, students develop their research proposal, and from April onwards they carry out in-depth research on a topic of their choice. This phase brings together the knowledge, concepts, and methods acquired during the programme. With supervision and guidance throughout the research and writing process, participants develop a substantial piece of original academic work on a topic they are genuinely intersted in.
What is it like to be a part of the classroom?
The content is delivered through a blend of lectures with case studies, discussions, working groups, group assignments, and fieldwork. Below, you can see a few examples of activities that take place during the academic year.
From complex theoretical frameworks to actionable urban strategies
How the Urban Resilience Workshop prepares students for global challenges
Beyond the classroom
MSc student Ahmed Mouhsen explores why effective climate solutions must be rooted in local knowledge
From experiences to advice: Insights from IHS alumni
What’s it like to study at IHS, and how can you make the most of your time here?
Study at a top-university in Rotterdam
#1 for Public Administration
worldwide for Public Administration Shanghai Ranking (2025)
#23 for Development Studies
QS WUR Ranking By Subject (2026)
#107 Worldwide
worldwide Times Higher Education (2026)
