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1. Study
2. Postgraduate
3. Taught Courses
4. Masters
5. RePIC

Course Fact File

Code	n/a
Duration	2 Years
Teaching Mode	Full-time
Qualifications	MSc
NFQ Level	Level 9
EU Fees	€4,500 per year; €9,000 total See Fees and Costs for full details.
Non-EU Fees	€9,000 per year; €18,000 total
Closing Date	See RePIC application board: https://repic-application.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/
Non-EU Closing Date	See RePIC application board: https://repic-application.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/
Venue	UCC campus and UNIC venues across Europe (virtual & physical)
Credits	120
Start Date	September 2024

Course Outline

The higher education sector has an essential role to play in Europe’s post-pandemic recovery and in shaping sustainable and resilient societies and economies. ~ European Commission (COM 2022-16)

Most of the world's population lives in urban areas which challenges us to rethink more sustainable urban futures and, as the European Commission notes, to shape resilient societies and economies. To this end, the alliance of the European University of Post­-Industrial Cities (UNIC) has collaborated to create a unique interdisciplinary joint-Masters programme Redesigning the Post-Industrial City (RePIC).

UNIC is inclusive, non-traditional, urban, and unique. UNIC students can actively participate in the transformation of society by developing an understanding of local city environments and by creating research-based solutions to its problems and challenges.

About this Course

Redesigning the Post-Industrial City (RePIC) is a two-year, English-taught Master's programme jointly designed and delivered by the UNIC alliance – where the ambition is to build a vibrant knowledge and innovation community committed to the rethinking of more sustainable urban futures. RePIC fosters transformative modes of teaching, research, and learning - responding to the specific challenges and characteristics of post-industrial cities and their increasingly super-diverse populations.

RePIC will use the ECTS credit system to facilitate the recognition of qualifications and actively defines mobility periods for students between each of the University partners which include:

• University College Cork, Ireland (UCC)
• Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands (EUR)
• University of Deusto (Bilbao), Spain (UDeusto)
• Ruhr University Bochum, Germany (RUB)
• Koç University (Istanbul), Turkey (KU)
• University of Liège, Belgium (ULiège)
• University of Oulu, Finland (UOulu)
• University of Zagreb, Croatia (UZagreb)

Outline

The focus of the research-led RePIC curriculum is the contemporary challenges posed in industrial heritage settings. Viewing the city as an experimental living laboratory, RePIC understands the post-industrial city as a complex system that is characterised by physical, political, and historical development paths, limits, and dynamic social, economic, ecological, and cultural vectors. The course is interested in finding new learning and action practices in reconceptualising the civic, cultural, and socio-urban fabric of the post-industrial city.

RePIC students explore the potential for the post-industrial city to act as a milieu for continuous civic immersion asking how it can be cultivated to inform debates around the construction of social identities and experiences of cultural dissonance. Based on this perspective, it will adopt participatory approaches and methods - such as CityLabs, Urban Field-Classes and Engaged Research Practices - and foster public-private-academic-societal partnerships.

RePIC’s vision is to develop a new network of urban thinkers with the capacity to contribute to future-oriented, avant-garde thinking on the revitalisation of the post-industrial city. If you are curious and interested in the questions about how we can revitalise post-industrial cities, this might be the course for you.

Student Mobility

An important part of the joint curriculum is the integration of mobility pathways for students between the UNIC Universities across Europe. Building on the complementary strengths of the UNIC alliance of eight European Universities, RePIC will provide for a life-changing physical and virtual student mobility experience and serve as a catalyst for innovative learning and action practices including structured project collaboration, social design studios, digital storytelling, and immersive design fictions.

Throughout the programme, there will be several collaborations involving community groups, academia, and specialist researchers. This will involve team-based practices and co-design approaches – and align the curriculum with specific City Lab challenge areas in different European cities. Thanks to this, RePIC students can acquire important intercultural and multilingual skills while gaining valuable experience of different European cultures during their studies.

Through this integrated mobility scheme, RePIC students not only get to know different examples of post-industrial cities as locations of the partners but also have the opportunity to deepen their intercultural competencies.

Course Practicalities

The two-year (120-credit) programme encourages research-led learning and will enable students to engage in co-design, co-production, and co-creation processes for the sustainable transformation of the post-industrial city and to explore the city.

The course is divided into four semesters within which students are offered several mobility options. RePIC students start together in the first Semester. In the second Semester, you will decide on one of four tracks - where each track is jointly delivered by two partners. The curated programme pathway encourages you to follow and evolve your own individual interests and include the following:

Track Options

• Urban Transformations and Resilience (UCC/ULiège)
• Diversity and Social Justice (KU/EUR)
• Urban Analysis: Smart, Sustainable and Resilient Cities (RUB/UOulu)
• Governance of Post-Industrial Cities (UZagreb/UDeusto)

Depending on the track chosen, students move to another university. In the third semester. students can decide on in-depth studies or practical training in a profession or in research at another host university. In the fourth and final semester, and considering the multidisciplinary nature of the programme, the students can choose among three forms of dissertation/thesis: a traditional dissertation, or research manuscript aiming at publication, or a practical project accompanied by documentation. The dissertation will be jointly supervised by two of the Partner Universities.

Semester	Coursework & Locations
1	Coursework in Germany (RUB) and CityLab excursion to Ireland (UCC)
2	Coursework based on selected track options at one of the partner universities (UCC-Ireland, KU-Turkey, RUB-Germany, or UZagreb-Croatia)
3	Coursework in Belgium (ULiège) or engaged research placement in Ireland (UCC)
4	Dissertation work at one of the partner universities

Modules

• AT6017 RePIC CityLab & Design Research Studio: Urban Analysis, Digital Design Strategies & Design Visualisations (10 credits, UCC, prior to semester start at RUB)
• The Post-Industrial City: Society, Space & Environment (10 credits, RUB)
• RePIC Urban Sustainability Transformations Seminar Series (5 credits, RUB)
• Research Methods & Academic Writing: Ethics, Modalities & Co-Design Techniques (asynchronous online classroom/forum) (5 credits)

Semester 2 (30 credits)

• AT6019 Research Design Studio: Salvaging & Transformations of the Post-Industrial City (15 credits, UCC)
• AT6020 Research Methods II: Digital Storytelling & Immersive Fictions (5 credits, UCC)
• GG6018 Conceptualising Society, Space, & the City (10 credits, UCC)

Semester 3 (30 credits)

• AT6021 CityLab & Field Salon (10 credits, UCC)
• AT6022 Structured Learning & Engaged Research Placement (15 credits, UCC)
• Research Methods III (5 credits, RUB)

Semester 4 (30 credits)

• AT6023 RePIC Dissertation (30 credits, UCC)

CityLabs

UNIC runs CityLabs across all its European campuses, including at University College Cork. UNIC CityLabs facilitate the collaboration of students, researchers, city stakeholders, organisations, and citizens to identify local societal challenges, co-create solutions to these problems, and ultimately implement the created solutions locally to drive societal change in post-industrial cities.

CityLabs address this urban agenda in many forms including workshops, hackathons, sprints, panel discussions, interviews, courses etc. Explore the Open Case Repository to learn more.

 

Why Choose This Course

RePIC will foster your design thinking skills and teach you how to communicate, and effectively visualise, the challenges and solutions that beset society today. You will have the opportunity to engage with real urban challenges in participatory approaches, to network with city leaders across Europe, and to engage in in-depth learning of a myriad of issues such as urban development, local governance, diversity and inclusion, and beyond.

All UNIC students can acquire intercultural and multilingual skills and experience European exchange. Not only will you receive a UCC student card 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.

Cork Campus

Cork is a vibrant university city where opportunities to learn, develop and advance are supported by our world-class academic institutions. Discover UCC and see why it is one of the top-ranked universities in Ireland. We are proud to be part of the UNIC alliance and support its values and drive for international mobility and the exchange of knowledge for all teachers, students, and citizens of Europe, regardless of their location. 

 

Placement or Study Abroad Information

Part of the joint curriculum is the integrated mobility of students.

All UNIC students can acquire intercultural and multilingual skills and experience European exchange thanks to the UNIC Inter-University Campus, a virtual and administrative home base that encourages and facilitates student mobility.

RePIC students start together in the first semester, and in the second semester decide on one of four tracks. Each track is offered jointly by two partners. Depending on the track chosen, students move to another university. In the third semester, students can decide on in-depth studies or practical training in a profession or in research at another host university. Through this integrated mobility scheme, RePIC students not only get to know different examples of post-industrial cities as locations of the partners but also have the opportunity to deepen their intercultural competencies.

Skills and Careers Information

You will have the opportunity to create unique partnerships for career advancement: as part of this programme you will network not only with employers through City Labs but employers across Europe.

Career opportunities will be varied including:

• Governmental organizations at local, national, European, and international levels (Public Urban Planning, Metropolitan Planning)
• The Third Sector, Foundations, NGOs engaged in Neighbourhood or Community Development, Urban Development or Transformation
• Companies (consulting, design, architecture, planning, construction) focused on metropolitan transitions (energy, labour market, mobility, health, education)

Our graduates will be excellently qualified to not only start attractive careers in various areas of the public and private sectors they will be well placed to work in university and non-university research.

Requirements

Applicants from diverse backgrounds who meet the necessary entry requirements and admission criteria listed below may apply for this programme.

Each year, RePIC may accept a study cohort with a total capacity of around 60 students. Admission may be granted to applicants who are not in conflict with national legal requirements for admission and meet the following eligibility criteria:

• Applicants must submit all necessary application documents according to the joint application procedure established by the RePIC Admission Committee by the established deadline day.

• Applicants must have acquired a qualified Bachelor's degree (Level 8, NFQ) with a dissertation, or an equivalent degree, that gives them access to a Master's degree programme with a total grade above average indicated in a Transcript of Records

• Applicants and demonstrable experience in themes related to redesigning post-industrial cities and design-related background. including but not limited to in the following fields: Architecture, Urban Design, Urban Planning, Geography, Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Geoinformatics, Sociology, Public Administration, Culture, Media, Visual Art, and other related fields of study.

• Applicants have to submit a motivation letter in which they provide a reflection about the content of the degree programme, and state their specific interest in the RePIC programme and their envisaged contributions to the programme.

• Applicants require a recognised qualification in the language of instruction (English).

Language Requirements

Applicants that are non-native speakers of the English language must meet the University-approved English language requirements. Please visit our Postgraduate English Language Requirements page for more information.

Entry Requirement Notes

Applicants submit their application through the central RePIC Application Board.

Submitted applications will be checked for completeness and ineligible candidates will be rejected. Eligible and well-qualified candidates are chosen by the Joint RePIC Admission Committee according to the following selection criteria:

• Type and level of academic qualification according to grades
• Type and level of documented research experience
• Type and level of prior knowledge and professional experience in the field
• Persuasive power of the motivation letter
• Results of admission interviews (if applicable)

RePIC considers itself to be an inclusive programme and intends to recruit students worldwide. This will increase the accessibility of the Master's programme and the diversity of its student population.

The RePIC Board of Directors will develop and implement an Equality and Diversity Awareness Programme and, as part of the application process, ensure the collection of nationality, gender and disability data.

Travel Visas and Residency Permits

It is the responsibility of the students to check that the authorisations required for visa and residence permits are in order before the Partner Institution permits the student’s activities in the RePIC degree programme to take place for students with or without an Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters (EMJM) scholarship. The Partner Institutions will make every effort to aid students in obtaining any necessary visa and residence permits before their studies commence.

 

Fees and Costs

See the RePIC Application Board for more information.

How To Apply

Applicants submit their application through the central RePIC Application Board.

The closing date for non-EU applications is See RePIC application board: https://repic-application.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/