After successfully completing the RePIC programme, you will be well-positioned to start or continue attractive careers in various areas of the public and private sector as well as in university and non-university research.

Creating opportunities to meet with potential employers starts long before graduation and is strongly supported by the manifold opportunities for you to interact with possible employers during each semester.

In addition to the curriculum, you will be regularly invited to research and practically oriented lectures organized at the programme universities and their partners. This establishes an early link with potential employers or placement companies. Examples in Germany are lecture series offered by the University Alliance Ruhr in the field of Metropolitan Studies “Ruhr Lecture”, and GIS related lectures organized by the Interdisciplinary Centre of Geo-Information (IZG) at RUB, in cooperation with the German Cartographic Society (DGfK e.V.)

You will also profit from qualified Career Guidance at each location by the RePIC partners’ career services departments. They provide information about the local and regional job market, offer career guidance and assistance in finding appropriate positions after graduation, and organize job fairs.

More detailed information about career support services can be found in the Student Handbook.

As a RePIC graduate you can find employment in the public sector in areas such as:

• • Public Urban Planning / Quarter Management;
• • Community Development;
• • City administrations;
• • Geospatial Data Analysis and Visualization

There are also opportunities for you as a RePIC graduate at:

• • Governmental organizations at local, national, European, and international level;
• • Social work organizations;
• • Third sector, NGO's engaged in Neighbourhood Development;
• • Foundations and organizations dealing with urban development and transformation;
• • Companies and organisations focused on metropolitan transitions, e.g., in sectors such as energy, data management, mobility, health, housing and education;
• • Consultancies with a focus on Innovation and Change Management;
• • Design agencies/businesses, development agencies, architecture / construction firms;
• • Property developers, consultancies in Architecture and Urban or Regional Planning

Why do employers need graduates of this Master’s now and in the future?

The urban history of our post-industrial cities emanates largely from the processing and manufacturing and in some cases exploitation and exhaustion of resources (natural resources such as soil, water, fossil fuels and minerals as well as human resources) of the industrial sector. This model is now comparatively less important than more dominant economic sectors (especially the service sector), while the industrial sector still accounts for 10-20% of a city’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Re-designing such cities requires an updated look at declining development paths, the set of social, economic, cultural, environmental, and political challenges post-industrial cities are facing at a turning point of their very existence, and potential escape routes from the path of decline.

Post-industrial cities are undergoing tremendous changes of interdependent human and environmental systems: migration, climate change, economic crises, widening gaps between the rich and the poor, pandemics, but also technical breakthrough developments (like artificial intelligence, autonomous driving, "green" energy supply and digitisation in general all challenge the ways cities are organised and people live and work in them.

City governments and private employers need to respond to these challenges with city managers, urban planners, and community designers that integrate different disciplinary perspectives on all governance levels, physical and human capital, economics, health, traffic, climate, migration, and others.

Graduates of the RePIC program obtain with this unique degree an edge over candidates from traditional or mainstream urban studies or urban planning degree programmes because they have developed a deep and transdisciplinary, thinking outside the box, understanding of topics such as

• • superdiversity in urban contexts;
• • innovation and digitalisation of public administration;
• • open space governance and management;
• • resilient cities;
• • healthy urban planning in European cities;
• • cultural economy, heritage economy and tourism;
• • trends reshaping climate and energy and the European Green Deal;
• • transnational migration, urban social movements and ‘the right to the city’

Erasmus Mundus Scholarships

The RePIC program consortium has successfully applied for funding from the European Commission to provide Erasmus Mundus Joint Master (EMJM) scholarships to as many RePIC students as possible. EMJM scholarships will be awarded to the best applicants worldwide, chosen by means of a RePIC evaluation grid and respecting the required maximum numbers per nationality (not more than 10% of EMJM scholarships per country), and in agreement with the eligibility and selection criteria and procedures established by the Consortium, as well as the specific criteria and procedures stipulated by the European Commission.

• A monthly allowance of EUR 1400 to cover travel, visa, installation and subsistence costs (for a maximum of 24 months)

• A full tuition fee waiver (2,250€ for EU-EFTA citizens or 4,500€ for non-EU/EFTA citizens per semester for a maximum of 4 semesters)

• Health insurance in line with EACEA requirements

Country-specific scholarships and funding options

Apart from using your savings or a sponsor’s support (employer, sponsorship organizations, GoFundMe campaigns), there are other ways to finance your studies in the RePIC programme.

Applying for a scholarship, grant or educational loan that you are eligible for in your own country of citizenship or residence are possible ways too. Below is a list of possible scholarship or educational loan information resources. Please note that those who have already benefitted from an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master (EMJM) scholarship are not eligible to apply for an additional scholarship:

• Students from Europe can use the European Funding Guide to search for financial support for studies in one of the EU-member states

• Students from outside of Europe can use the International Financial Aid and College Scholarship Search online database that lists scholarships, grants, international student loan programmes and other information to promote study abroad

• Canadian loan schemes: we may accept students with Canadian loan schemes. For more information please contact applyrepic@ruhr-uni-bochum.de

• US student finance: we may accept students with US federal loan programmes. For more information please contact applyrepic@ruhr-uni-bochum.de

Costs Linked to the Participation in the RePIC Programme

In addition to the annual tuition fees, other administrative and social fees (such as stamp and certification fees, library and laboratory costs, social contribution fees, examination fees) and any other mandatory costs charged by the Partner institutions are to be paid by the students.

Students also must cover sustenance, accommodation, travel to and from partner universities, visa costs, etc. Any costs arising from unjustified prolongation of studies beyond the standard duration of the programme (four semesters) shall be charged at the publicly published standard rates of the partner institution involved.

Appeal procedure

Applicants whose application has been rejected for RePIC admission or EMJM-scholarship and who believe that the application procedure has not been correctly followed may appeal within 1 week after the date of notification. The RePIC Admission and Examination Committee will then process this appeal to reach a final decision. Please fill out the following PDF appeal form accordingly and send it to: appealrepic@ruhr-uni-bochum.de.

Special Needs Guidance

RePIC strives to facilitate equal-opportunity access to education: students with disabilities or chronic diseases that impair their access to higher education are eligible for access arrangements (“Nachteilsausgleiche”) – when they get admitted to university, for individual exams or lecture, and in some cases for the duration of the entire degree programme (if, for example, their health impairment means that it will take them longer to complete their degree).

Thus, we do not only comply with legal requirements, but we also work towards the common goal of establishing inclusive higher education in accordance with the notion of universitas. We would like to encourage and invite you to get advice – it is fully confidential and might help you assess to what extent and in what way your academic career may benefit from access arrangements.

The Service Centre for Disabled Students (BZI) at the academic services office Akademisches Förderungswerk provides professional and individual advice to RUB students with health impairments regarding university admissions, degree programmes and access arrangements. The service centre, moreover, houses wheelchair-accessible workstations and technical aids. These workstations are monitored by IT.Services, which also implement access arrangements for exams.

Additional information at the BZI homepage.

All students enrolled in RePIC (with or without a scholarship), regardless of their scholarship status, who have disabilities such as long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments certified by a competent national authority, may apply for financial assistance to acquire special equipment or services, third-party assistance, adaptation of their working environment and additional travel or transportation costs.

RUB Barrier-free accommodation

RUB Sport service office

The RePIC Student Handbook contains additional information for each of the RePIC Partner Universities.

1. Studying in Europe

Europe, in which the RePIC partner universities are located, is among the most urbanized regions. Its urban system is characterized by a wide variety of small and medium-sized cities, large cities and metropolitan regions, and these urban areas are complex dynamic systems forming part of networks of cities.

The eight participating universities have well-documented expertise in the fields of urban planning and are a leading institution in their respective countries.

You can explore what is offered by each of the eight partner universities in terms of the campus location, the city, services for students and more in the Student Handbook.

2. Becoming a generalist-expert

City development and urban transformation urgently needs skilled graduates who are generalists and specialists in certain domains at the same time, and who can explain modern concepts and complex processes in a comprehensible and convincing way to citizens and interact with other professionals, experts, and researchers they are working with. In addition to the professional knowledge that will be imparted in RePIC, training will therefore focus on communicative skills and on the permanent practice of the acquired professional and methodological skills, starting from day 1 of the study programme.

3. Interacting with future employers

The programme’s multidisciplinary approach is premised on the understanding that real-world problems cross traditional academic boundaries. Professors from other disciplines, related to Urban Studies, offer their expertise to you as a student. Leading scholars and guest lecturers are invited to teach and to deliver talks, lectures, seminars, and organise round table discussions. Representatives from the city administrations, their subsidiaries, companies, NGOs and regional organisations, are also invited to present challenges they are facing and discuss options to solve them, which leads to the emergence of new projects, suggestions for your Master thesis and new topics for City Labs.

4. A joint degree diploma

You will receive a joint degree from eight internationally renowned universities which is highly acknowledged by employers worldwide. You are also a member of a high-performance network: If you decide to pursue a career in academia after graduation, RePIC offers first-rate doctoral programmes, career support and development options for obtaining executive positions in the world of academia and research.

5. Dedicated student support and ease of mobility throughout the programme

During each of the four semesters, the student service units at the partner institutions provide support with respect to all social, cultural and university matters, as well as administrative and legal questions. By offering numerous events and advisory services, you will be assisted not only throughout your social integration in campus life but also when facing academic challenges.

You will be the recipient of a UNIC European student card. UNIC student cards allow for easy access to seamless European mobility, both virtual and physical; you are not limited to one campus or one city – you gain easy access to eight campuses located in Europe’s up-and-coming post-industrial cities.

The European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA), in the context of managing the Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters, collects and processes the personal data of some of the candidates. In particular, certain data of the scholarship holders and non-scholarship holders is shared with the Agency and treated according to this privacy statement.