Student testimonial

Student story Mareike

Mareike: Bachelor Internationaal Land and Water Management

“What I like most is that this degree combines the social and technical aspects of land and water. ”

Why this study?

I’m Mareike, 21 years old, and I’m from Germany. I’m in the second year of the bachelor’s programme in International Land and Water Management. After finishing high school, I decided to do some voluntary work on a farm in Sweden. There, I saw how you can restore infertile land where nothing grows anymore, and even make it suitable for agriculture again; that really appealed to me. And I thought: that’s what I want to study! My mother found the BSc International Land and Water Management programme at Wageningen University online and showed it to me. I saw that this degree met all my wishes, and I enrolled.

International Land and Water Management

I really enjoy that the programme combines both social and technical aspects and that we do a lot of group work at the same time. We work on projects, which is exactly what I want to do later in my career. So this programme really prepares me to work project-based in the future. So far, I have enjoyed the course ‘Design in Land and Water Management 1’ the most. For this, we went on a ten-day field trip to South Limburg. Our group’s goal was to explore how we could reduce the (too rapid) run-off of water in agriculture. I really enjoyed seeing how all the subjects from the first year came together. I often thought: aha, that’s why we learned that!

Settling in Wageningen

Settling in Wageningen was fairly easy for me, as I grew up in the suburbs of Berlin. That also has a bit of the feel of a small town, so Wageningen is somewhat similar to home. It’s easy to make friends here. Besides my studies, I joined the choir at the start of my first year. I’m also a member of the student association Nitocra, where I’ve served on various committees. In addition, I do several sports at Sportcentrum De Bongerd, and more recently, I became a member of the sailing club. Being an international student in Wageningen is not hard. This is because a lot of internationals follow this programme, so you’re surrounded by many other internationals. On top of that, Wageningen itself is a very international town.