During the one-year Heritage Studies Master's programme you develop knowledge, methods and skills to act as a heritage expert among architects, spatial planners, policymakers and citizens. You’ll be studying in an interdisciplinary environment that encourages you to adopt a spatial perspective with a critical eye for the past, present and future.
Throughout the programme we take ongoing societal challenges as a point of departure, such as religious diversity in cities, wildfire management and sustainable re-use of abandoned sites. Apart from the compulsory courses on the role of heritage in present-day challenges, there is lots of room for specialization as well. You are free to choose elective courses, assignment topics, internships and the topic of your Master’s thesis. Recently students graduated on researching the remains of the Atlantic Wall, Westminster Abbey as a tourist-historic icon, heritage strategies in shrinking regions, and the re-use of historic farms.
The professors who will be teaching you are heritage researchers, architecture historians, archaeologists and cultural geographers. Each of them performs academic research as part of research institute CLUE+ while most also take up roles in the professional heritage field.
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam offers the only Heritage Studies Master's programme that focuses on a spatial perspective in Europe. The university has a highly international outlook, making it the ideal place to study heritage in an international context. The Amsterdam Canal District is a UNESCO World Heritage site, while the city of Amsterdam is world-renowned for its culture, art and tolerance. It offers the perfect context for studying spatial heritage in relationship to urban transformations and tourism.
The start date of this programme is September 1st.
