Civic Studio - Engage, Design, Reflect (30 EC)

Co-create interventions to social challenges with communities through transdisciplinary collaboration.

This is a 30-EC, hands-on minor for students eager to make an impact on themes such as Sustainability, Urban Transitions, and Health & Wellbeing. You work in transdisciplinary teams with community organisations, researchers, and professionals on real challenges affecting children, youth, and families in Rotterdam and Delft—no hypothetical cases, only real partners and real contributions.
The minor is student-centred: you acquire essential knowledge, tools, and preparation, while being guided closely through the process. At the same time, you are expected to take initiative, work independently, and shape your own learning journey. Expert coaching is provided throughout by ESSB, Erasmus MC, TU Delft, and societal partners.
The programme consists of two phases, required to complete 30-EC.
Phase 1 – Foundations & Framing is immersive and exploratory. You explore different themes through systems thinking, macro–meso–micro perspectives, and stakeholder analysis. Special attention is paid to individual growth and group dynamics, supported by capacities from the Inner Development Goals Guide.
Phase 2 – Field Research & Intervention focuses on real-world inquiry and responsible action. You collaborate with partners in the field, explore future scenarios, and design intervention pathways. Skills such as empathy, creativity, collaboration, and complexity awareness guide team processes and decision-making.
Possible topics include youth resilience, social and health inequalities, sustainability, community wellbeing, diversity and inclusion, and technological or digital innovation.
Civic Studio offers a space to explore, experiment, and contribute to a fairer and more resilient society—while developing personally, collaboratively, and academically.

After completing the minor, you will be able to:

1. Explore complex societal challenges by examining them at different levels and from different viewpoints,
2. Understand how issues, people, and systems are connected.
3. Collaborate with community members, professionals, and researchers to bring together academic insights, lived experience, and field-based evidence when studying a real challenge.
4. Develop and justify an intervention pathway using iterative, futures-informed design, grounded in problem framing, systems analysis, stakeholder engagement, fieldwork, experimentation, and partner feedback.
5. Reflect critically on the personal, relational, and ethical dimensions of your work by examining your own assumptions and positioning, and by integrating insights from field engagement, teamwork, and professional relationships into a coherent account of your development.
6. Communicate your analysis, choices, and outcomes clearly to academic, professional, and community audiences in an engaging and accessible way.

The course is offered in English.
Attendance is required due to the collaborative and studio-based nature of the minor. Learners engage in fieldwork and stakeholder activities across multiple locations in Rotterdam and Delft.
The course is offered as a 30 EC minor and is designed as a coherent, integrated learning trajectory. All enrolled learners are expected to participate fully in the programme and to complete the minor as a whole.
Active participation in reflective practice is expected throughout the programme, including the cultivation and demonstration of relevant Inner Development Goals capacities (for example: Being – self-awareness, presence; Thinking – complexity awareness, critical thinking; Relating – empathy, humility; Collaborating – trust, inclusive mindset; Acting – courage, creativity).

Please note: This minor also has a single 15 EC trajectory running over 10 weeks in the second block of the first semester, starting on 9 November 2026 .
It is designed for students who need to complete 15 EC after finishing a 15 EC minor in the first 10 weeks.

Teaching Methods
Workshops, guided interactive sessions, systems-mapping sessions, guided tours, fieldwork, stakeholder engagements, design studio sessions, coaching, peer learning, reflective practice guided by selected capacities from the IDGs framework (e.g., from Thinking: Complexity Awareness, Perspective-Taking; from Collaborating: Co-creation, Inclusive Mindset; from Relating: Empathy, Connectedness), and futures exploration.

Teaching Materials
Academic articles and book chapters; IDGs guide and selected materials; stakeholder documents; field data; videos; workshop resources on design, reflection, and collaboration; transdisciplinary tools.

Method of examination
The minor includes multiple moments of feedback, intermediate outputs, and assessments. Grading takes place only at the conclusion of the minor, based on the full body of work developed throughout the learning process.
Throughout the minor, students engage in formative assessment activities that support learning, reflection, and progression.
Final Assessment (end of the minor)
At the end of the minor, students submit two summative components:
1. Project Portfolio (group-based)

Students submit a comprehensive Project Portfolio that documents their transdisciplinary inquiry and intervention process. The portfolio includes:
o Methodology Frame
o Systems analysis and stakeholder mapping
o Problem framing and contextual grounding
o Fieldwork activities and empirical findings
o Iterative, futures-informed design cycles
o The refinement and justification of an intervention pathway
o A structured Intervention Evaluation, drawing on evidence from stakeholder engagement, prototyping, and feasibility, desirability, and ethical considerations

2. Critical Reflection Report (individual)
Individually, students submit a Critical Reflection Report that integrates personal development, relational dynamics, and ethical considerations across the entire minor. The report explicitly connects learning experiences from field engagement, teamwork, and decision-making, and may draw on relevant capacities from the Inner Development Goals where appropriate.

In addition to these written components, students organise:
A Learning Expo where they share their insights and interventions with stakeholders, creating a space for reflection, collective sensemaking, and dialogue around findings and possible pathways forward.
Both the Project Portfolio and the Critical Reflection Report must be completed successfully in order to pass the minor and obtain the full 30 ECTS.

Composition final grade

• Project Portfolio (fieldwork documentation, methodology frame, iterative design cycles, structured intervention evaluation) – 60%
• Individual Critical Reflection Report covering personal, relational, and ethical development across both phases – 40%