Dear students,

To our new students: Welcome to Urban Studies, and for many of you also welcome to Leiden University, welcome to The Hague. For our second- and third-year students: welcome back!

For all of you, I hope you feel rested after the summer vacations and ready to start your Urban Studies programme (again). The last semester was very exceptional, challenging for both students and teachers. But we worked our way through it as best as we could.

Unfortunately, education will still be largely online this semester. And I can assure you, this is far from ideal.

Speaking for myself: I miss the contact with the students, with the colleagues, with university. I even miss commuting between Amsterdam and The Hague. But there is also good news. As of this week, there will be real lectures on campus again, especially for our first-year students. It will be exciting for all of us.

Despite Corona, we are looking forward to the new academic year. And we hope that we can make i

 

t as interesting, varied and lively as possible for you, our students.

I wish you all the best for the coming academic year. It will be a special year. For the students of course, but also for the program as a whole. This year Urban Studies will be fully running for the first time. Our third-year students will be working towards the completion of their studies, including their bachelor theses. At the end of the academic year we expect our first graduates. Hopefully we can organize our graduation ceremony on campus. I am really looking forward to it.

 

Welcome again. Let’s make it a beautiful year.

 

André W.M. Gerrits

Programme Chair