Environmental and Infrastructure Planning

The Master's in Environmental and Infrastructure Planning is a challenging and motivating program for planners who, like myself, aim to contribute towards creating better places to live in, hence, more habitable and sustainable cities. Moreover, it encompasses accurate planning concepts, tools and knowledge to solve the many difficulties our cities experience.

I was captivated by the passion by which the professors educate the students, and in the way they develop an increased interest and understanding in different aspects of urban planning. Being a RUG student, I have broadened my knowledge and skills as a planner. In particular, I have realized the importance of holistic bottom-up approaches, involving all the parties linked to a program or project, who stand to be affected either in a positive or negative way.

Personally, I have enjoyed my stay in Groningen and I met amazing people. My Master’s degree in Environmental and Infrastructure Planning has definitely opened many doors within the working environment of my city.

- Mariá Costanza Almeida

In the summer of 2021, I finished my bachelor's degree in Spatial Planning and Design at the Faculty of Spatial Sciences. While I started out the bachelor with a great interest in the design-element of it, I ended up graduating with an even greater interest in the policymaking-element of spatial planning.

During the bachelor, the focus subjects concerned water management, environmental issues and mobility & infrastructure. I very much enjoyed these subjects, and together with my interest in policymaking, the Environmental and Infrastructure Planning master felt like a good match. And so, I started with my master’s degree in September of 2021.

Environmental and Infrastructure Planning is a great program for those who are interested in sustainability, the energy transition, and their impacts on the living environment. The courses in the program provide a good mix of content-related courses (such as Reinventing Environmental Planning) and research-related courses (such as Comparative Research and Planning Practice). The program involves a great deal of group projects, that help you figure out your role while working in teams. Also, the program offers the freedom to focus your projects and reading materials on the subjects that you find most interesting.

During the Graduate Research Day where I presented my thesis, I encountered an alumnus of the faculty, who has introduced me to the job I am doing now. I now work for a public transport authority as a policy advisor on public transport development. My goal is to encourage people to choose more sustainable modes of transport!

- Tess ten Have

The motivation why I choose for the masters Environmental & Infrastructure Planning (EIP) and Society, Sustainability and Planning (SSP) was to understand and counteract the, in my view, planning and design processes that enforce personal examples of injustice and inequality in the spatial domain. I am interested in giving all actors a voice and the instruments or tools to make the physical environment better for its users.

The different courses of the masters taught me different theoretical and practical lenses of which I am still grateful of and apply in my personal and working life.

At the moment I work as a consultant Smart Cities & Smart Mobility for the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management. What is interesting is that I am most of the time busy with making connections between people and programme’s. I believe that both masters enabled me to do so because you get to know how the process of spatial planning works and you are aware of the content with in-depth knowledge about sustainability, planning and stakeholder involvement. This may seem a bit odd, but in my experience it appears to be a critical power and unique selling point. Most of my colleagues do not have such a background and are not always fully informed about the spatial consequences of their actions. A glimpse of programme’s I work on: 5G-Blueprint, a public-private ecosystem for smart and sustainable urban development and the Dutch National Mobility Vision 2050.

Besides, I started right after my master the company VRX which specialises in using (Immersive) Virtual Reality (IVR) for co-creative spatial planning and design. VRX produces virtual environments where citizens can experience how for instance a playground can look like based on different scenario’s. During design sessions with IVR we ask them to give their view on the scenario’s so we are able to improve the scenario’s while working towards a final design.

The important thing about both masters is that they provide you with a fruitful and professional knowledge base. After you finish your master you can work in different working fields, for different organisations and connect them to each other (energy, water, transport, housing, nature). I hope my personal experience after study and two years working underlines this and provides an (prospective) example for people interested in either or both masters.

- Roy Boertien

This infographic shows in which workfield alumni of the master's programme ended up, and is based on alumni who graduated between 2022 and 2024. As is visible, the majority of the alumni have found a job relevant to their field of study within 6 months since graduating.