Student testimonial

Student story Mareike

Mareike: Bachelor International Land and Water Management

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

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.