The Technical University of Darmstadt and Goethe University Frankfurt will launch a joint master’s degree program in “Urban Studies” in the summer semester of 2026.
The German-language program offers students the opportunity to delve into the rapid development of cities, their diverse everyday life, their complex planning, and their future challenges. Students can choose from a wide range of topics, enabling them to develop a social science perspective on cities that is unique in Germany. The degree is awarded by both universities.
Exciting career path
The master’s program is aimed at bachelor’s degree graduates in social sciences, history, human geography, and architecture who want to deepen their basic knowledge in a practical field of research. The program qualifies students for a growing professional field that deals with the complex challenges of cities in the areas of urban management, urban education and public relations, citizen participation, neighborhood development, urban monument preservation and archiving, as well as consultative urban planning. Applications for the program are open until March 1, 2026.
Combining two distinguished locations
The program combines the expertise of two distinguished locations for urban research in the German-speaking world. At TU Darmstadt, the Institutes of Sociology, History, and Political Science, as well as the Department of Architecture, are involved, among others, and can build on many years of collaboration in urban-related research. At the University of Frankfurt, the Institute of Human Geography contributes its expertise in globalized urbanization processes to the study program. Modules in planning, economics, linguistics, and philosophy from both universities complement the program.
Long-standing cooperation
The initiative for the cooperative degree program originated with the Darmstadt-based working group “Interdisciplinary Urban Research,” which is now further developing its long-standing joint research collaboration with a joint degree program. The cooperation with Frankfurt’s Human Geography department initially consisted of joint research projects (e.g., the DFG Research Training Group “Organizing Architectures”). This gave rise to the idea of supplementing the perspectives and expertise of the social sciences and history department at TU Darmstadt with geographical perspectives, thereby creating an attractive study program for students.
Source: Press release “Cities of the future: New degree program at TU Darmstadt and Goethe University Frankfurt”
Degree programs at the Rhine-Main Universities (RMU)
The Urban Studies program is one of ten joint programs offered by the Rhine-Main Universities (RMU), an alliance comprising TU Darmstadt, the University of Frankfurt, and the University of Mainz. With this combined portfolio, the three universities are also pooling their research strengths and creating internationally attractive offerings. The universities contribute courses to the cooperatively organized degree programs and jointly supervise theses.
