Delft University of Technology - TU Delft (reviews)

I liked the university and the programme specifically due to the
-Mostly high quality professors
-Wide variety of courses
-Practical projects and group work
-Student communities
-Career and networking opportunities

The master program Urbanism at the TU Delft is a combination of research and design. Each quarter within the two-year master program there is aimed for a synergy between the research and the design throughout the scales, e.g. a square (Q2), a neighbourhood (also Q2), a city (Q1), and a metropolis (Q3). Especially in the latter scale during quarter three you are asked to level up the theoretical framework aspects and achieve a research-based design. The different scales ask for a different approach, which can be challenging.

For me, the Master Urbanism is closely related in content to education in Urban design at a Dutch University of Applied sciences. Therefore, the first two quarters of the Masters can be at one hand considered repetition if with similar mentioned background, or new knowledge when ones background is Architecture, Landscape Architecture or Spatial Planning. If one isn’t used to the approach that is used in Urbanism within the Netherlands, it will certainly provide new knowledge.

All cases within the program are located within the Netherlands, therefore a quarter is about water-management/water-resiliency, socio-ecological design, climate, the use of land and innovation. Only during the graduation year one can choose a site in a different part of the world.

A few programs that are used are QGIS (for spatial data analysis), ENVI-met (for researching climate interventions), Adobe and AutoCad/Rhino/Vectorworks.

Be aware that each faculty within the TU Delft can have its own way of teaching. The Faculty of Architecture is usually considered one of the most design-oriented faculties and therefore less research-based, with knowledge gained during the courses implemented.

The university is an excellent technical university, especially in Aerospace Engineering. The Aerospace faculty is, in general, knowledgeable and approachable. English is the official language of instruction which, as an international student myself, is nice. Academically, I found the coursework extremely relevant and challenging. Housing is an issue here in Delft. I would recommend coming several months before you intend to start your studies to find a place to stay.

TU Delft is among the best techinical European universities. It is full of international students, which gives you the possibility of interacting with different cultures. The university is connected well to many research institutes and companies, that know the quality of the students graduating from TU Delft and value them highly. The faculty of aerospace engineering has very knowledgeable and inspiring professors. Many associations and dream teams on many different topics exists, if you want to join one and enrich your cv with extra-curricular activities. Also the well-being of the students is something TU Delft values a lot, giving the possibility to reserve appointments or just swing by the academic counsellors offices during open hours. If you don’t know anyone in Delft as an international student, you will get started with the peer group initiative in which you will be assigned a group and a mentor, usually a older student of your same track. Of course the university demands a lot to the students: you will have to study, work hard, make choices for your future that might sometimes be difficult. But it is completely rewarded in the end. The expertise and confidence you will gain are really valuable. Finally, courses are usually very specific and topics are explained in depth, so you can really make your study plan to fit your interests and become an expert.

The teachers are very good and there are a lot of possibilities to ask them questions and get help if there are any difficulties. The courses given are very nice and interesting if you like maths and physics ! Since it is an engineering degree, the career opportunities are endless. It all depends on the master you choose to follow after the bachelor.
Last year the courses were online so unfortunately the student life wasn’t that great but this year everything changed. So as covid won’t be a problem in the future, the student life will be great! There are however only three faculties that teach in english so there are a lot more dutch people than internationals. This is not a problem but it is very difficult to find housing since most of the student houses in delft accept only dutch people. You should look into that well before starting every year.

The bachelor aerospace engineering has a nice combination of mathematics and engineering courses. The way projects are incorporated in the bachelor makes sure that you can immediately apply learnt concepts.

The study is good but it is too much and tried to teach too much in 3 years. Lots of students suffer from depression or burnout due to this permanent high stress. The hybrid online/ on campus teaching did not make this better.

Good atmosphere, high quality of education, too high workload, great in depth projects, difficult exams with laughably low pass rates from time to time. The Faculty is high-tech, well-designed, features many study places, and places to get food.