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Liberal Arts and Sciences: Global Challenges

Leiden University College The Hague (LUC) is the international Honours College of Leiden University, offering an innovative and cutting-edge Liberal Arts & Sciences programme to highly talented and motivated students from all over the world. LUC is located in The Hague and offers a Bachelors of Arts and a Bachelors of Science in Liberal Arts and Sciences that focus on today's Global Challenges: Peace and Justice, Sustainability, Prosperity and Diversity.

About

PROGRAMME @ LUC

Note:

  • 180EC is required to be able to graduate. One of the four elective classes the student takes during the first-year should count towards the eventual Major, Minor/Electives component, or Global Citizenship.

  • the standard course load is 15 EC per block.

  • students have the option to go abroad for a semester, provided they are in good academic standing; this semester abroad should ideally take place in the first semester of the third year and its courses typically count towards the 30EC elective component.

Important Acronyms

EES: Earth, Energy, and Sustainability
CHS: Culture, History & Society
GED: Governance, Economics, and Development
GPH: Global Public Health
IJ: International Justice
WP: World Politics

GS: Gender Studies
J: Journalism
L: Languages
PHIL: Philosophy
PSY: Psychology

GC: Global Citizenship

Year 1

YEAR 1 PROGRAMME

General Information Year 1 Programme
The first-year programme also allows students to enroll in four 5EC elective courses, one in Block 2, two in Block 3, and one again in Block 4. These courses represent an ideal opportunity for students to explore other facets of the academic programme not represented in the compulsory part the first-year programme. Grades received in optional courses in the first year will not count towards the graduating GPA (but will count towards the cumulative GPA), although the credits may be used towards fulfilling the 85EC or 30EC requirement for a Major or Minor, respectively. As their first-year elective courses, students may select any of the 100-level courses below.

Vak EC Semester 1 Semester 2

Compulsory courses

Academic Writing 5
History of Philosophy 5
Introduction to Statistics 5
Global Challenges: Diversity 5
Global Challenges: Sustainability 5
Global Challenges: Peace & Justice 5
Global Challenges: Prosperity 5
Mathematical Modeling 5
Mathematical Reasoning 5

Elective courses (please note first-years cannot take an elective in Block 1)

Calculus 5
Comparative Justice Systems 5
Sociolinguistics 5
Introduction to Comparative Politics 5
Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies 5
Principles of Economics 5
Principles of Public International Law 5
Energy and Resource Management 5
Social Theory in Everyday Life 5
Introduction to Globalization and Transnational Politics 5
Health, Society, and History 5
Introduction to Psychology 5
Sharing Scarcity: The Commons 5
Earth System Science 5
Environmental Science 5
Introduction to Socio-legal Studies 5
Women, Human Rights, and World Religions 5
Birth of the Modern World 5
Introduction to Gender Studies 5
Introduction to International Relations & Diplomacy 5
Institutions of Governance and Development 5
What is Culture? 5
Essentials of Journalism 5
Introduction to Logic and Epistemology 5
Introduction to Programming 5
Media and Communication Theory 5
Sharing Scarcity: Water 5
Social Determinants of Health 5
The World of Entrepreneurs 5
Sovereignty and Statehood 5
Biology 5
Global Histories of Health, Medicine and Disease 5
Health Systems and Management 5
Philosophies of the World 5

Majors

MAJORS @ LUC

The following Majors are offered at LUC:

Minors/Electives

MINORS, ELECTIVES & SEMESTER ABROAD @ LUC

Apart from the Year 1 elective courses, there is an additional electives component amounting to 30EC worth of courses. Students can use this elective space to either take a Minor, take a set of elective courses, or take a Semester Abroad.

Minors
Students may complete a Minor in one of the following four ways:

  • LUC Minors; the College offers five pre-structured Minors, consisting of a coherent 30EC package of courses, including 10EC in 300-level courses: Gender Studies, Journalism, Languages, Philosophy, and Psychology.

  • Minor in a Major; a student selects 30EC worth of courses (at least two at 300-level) within one of LUC’s six Majors.

  • A Minor included in the official list of Leiden University Minors. Please contact the Board of Examiners prior to starting the Minor for approval to include its courses into your LUC programme.

  • A student who wants to include a Minor from another university needs to ask permission from the Board of Examiners.

Electives
Instead of doing a Minor, it is also possible to take 30EC of electives. This option requires a set of elective courses (30EC) within the context of the individual study plan. Do note that a maximum of 15 EC of post-first-year 100-level courses may be used towards the 30EC elective space. The selection of courses should be in consultation with the student’s academic advisor and/or study advisor. Any course of a Major or Minor can be taken as an elective. It's also possible to take an external (i.e. non-LUC) class, but in that case you will need permission from the Board of Examiners to include the course in your programme.

Semester Abroad
Student can use the 30 EC elective space to go on a Semester Abroad. For more information, please visit our website.

Fortuna Board Members, Resident Assistants
Students who are Fortuna Board Members and/or Resident Assistants may receive 10ECTS for those activities if they meet the requirements, which involves writing an essay. More information will be published soon.

Vak EC Semester 1 Semester 2
Masterpieces of Cinema I 5
Great Books: Modern Totalitarian Dictatorship 5
The World of Entrepreneurs 5
Introduction to Programming 5
Advanced Programming 5
Great Books: Fyodor Dostoevsky 5
Masterpieces of Cinema II 5
Online Marketing 5

GC

The Global Citizenship component offers students various options to develop their cross-cultural communication and reflection skills, and increase their appreciation of cultural and social diversity. This can be done by learning another language, participating in a community project, or by taking classes on citizenship and urban studies. Each path aims to increase the understanding of and communication with people from other cultures.

Within the Global Citizenship component (10EC) students have several options in 2022-2023:

Note: these are semester-long courses and therefore run for the duration of the semester, i.e. Blocks 1+2 or Blocks 3+4.

Some of these courses may involve additional costs for students, such as an additional tuition fee or travel costs to another city in the Netherlands for an excursion. LUC has a limited fund available to help students who are unable to pay for these costs. Please contact financial.support@luc.leidenuniv.nl, including the course title, a description of the costs, and a very brief explanation why you are unable to cover these costs.

Vak EC Semester 1 Semester 2

100-level

Arabic - Beginners 10
Dutch - Beginners 10
French - Beginners 10
Spanish - Beginners 10
Russian - Beginners 10

200-level

The College Project: Higher Education in a Turbulent Time 10
French - Elementary 10
Postcolonial World 10
Spanish - Elementary 10
Searching for Sustainable Livelihoods: A Fieldcourse on Fieldwork in The Netherlands 10

300-level

French - Intermediate 10
Spanish - Intermediate 10
Struggle in the City 10

400-level

Spanish - Advanced 5

RC

RESEARCH CLINICS

Research Clinics (5 ECTS) introduce students to academic research by engaging them in ongoing research projects of LUC staff members. Students are invited to participate within various stages of a project, ranging from the set-up or the application for research grants, over the gathering of data and the drafting of findings, to the final polishing of a text and preparing it for publication.

Tags

Depends on clinic, see links below. While any clinic can be used as an elective class within a student's elective space, some clinics can also be used towards (a) particular Major(s).” Please note students can use only one research clinic towards the 180 ECTS necessary to graduate. Any additional clinics will count as extracurricular activities.

Level and ECTS

All clinics are offered at the 200-level and generate 5 ECTS.

Admissions requirements

  • Academic writing (or equivalent)

  • Other requirements may be in place for specific research projects.

  • Second or third year students only

Registration

Please submit a short motivation on why you want to participate in the clinic of your choice to course.administration@luc.leidenuniv.nl. The clinic instructors will select the students for their own clinics.

The deadline to submit your motivation is Sunday 1 January 2023 for Semester 2 research clinics!

Clinics, Semester 2, 2022-2023

CHS + WP: Fake News & the Dutch Republic (1600-1800) (Dr. Jacqueline Hylkema)

EES: Muddy Boots & Muddy Waters: Riparian and Coastal Wetland Soils (Dr. Paul Hudson)

EES: Digital Landscapes (Dr. Paul Hudson)

EES: Soil Carbon Dynamics in Managed Dune Landscapes (Dr. Achim Häger & Dr. Paul Hudson)

Elective: How Money Matters: Beyond Student Socioeconomic Diversity Towards Inclusion at LUC (Dr. Anar Ahmadov)

Elective: Learning with the Learning Mindset (Dr. Caroline Archambault & Dr. David Ehrhardt)

GED: Build Your Social OR For-Profit Business (Dr. David Zetland)

GED: Keeping up with the Times: The Comparative of Constitutional Revision (Dr. Brandon Zicha; J.D. Mussel)

IJ + GED: Land Rights, Law & Climate Change (Dr. Bernardo Ribeiro de Almeida)

WP: Developing a new World Politics course ‘Decolonisation: Past & Present’ (Dr. Densua Mumford)

Clinics, Semester 1, 2022-2023

Note that any clinic may count as an elective class; it may only count towards your Major if the clinic is listed below as being part of your Major. If the clinic is only listed as "elective", it may only count towards your elective space.

EES: Muddy Boots & Muddy Waters: Riparian and Coastal Wetland Soils (Dr. Paul Hudson)

EES: Digital Landscapes (Dr. Paul Hudson)

GED: Keeping up with the Times: The Comparative of Constitutional Revision (Dr. Brandon Zicha, with LUC Alumnus J.D. Mussel, abd)

Course objectives

After having successfully completed this course, students will have be proficient in one or more of the following course objectives to be able to :

  • formulate research questions and structure a collective project;

  • draft and revise an academic text of high quality;

  • utilize specific research skills and methodologies in the context of a larger research question,

  • cooperate in a research team.

As such, this course provides excellent preparation for students’ Capstone projects as well as later academic research at graduate or post-graduate level.

Timetable

Once accepted for a clinic, students should check with the clinic coordinator about meeting times.

Mode of instruction

Each student is expected to meet with her/his project leader regularly to discuss her/his progress, receive feedback on earlier work, ask questions and outline further assignments.

Individual project leaders may require additional meetings during which students can be asked to give presentations to all project participants. Project leaders may also ask students to attend specialist lectures, seminars or conferences – insofar as relevant for the project.

Important: students are expected to keep a log of their activities, detailing per hour spent on the project what they have accomplished.

Assessment

Participation during research clinic meetings
Weekly assignments
Keeping a research log

Note that all assignments as well as the final grade for the clinic will be stated as Pass/Fail.

Registration

This course is open to LUC students and LUC exchange students. Registration is coordinated by the Curriculum Coordinator. Interested non-LUC students should contact course.administration@luc.leidenuniv.nl.

Exchange

EXCHANGE @ LUC

Are you an international student and interested in spending a semester or a year studying at Leiden University College (LUC) in The Hague? This page contains all the relevant information on course offerings for incoming exchange students.

For general information about LUC’s unique character and structure within Leiden University as well as the application criteria please visit the LUC The Hague website for incoming exchange.

LUC Exchange students may select any course offered at LUC. However, please do take into account the following:

  • LUC maintains a maximum of 20 students per course. This means your enrolment in any specific course cannot be guaranteed. Courses will be allocated about a month before the start of the autumn semester and about two weeks before the start of the spring semester (due to the winter holidays). For more information please refer to LUC’s website for incoming exchange.

  • Some courses may have prerequisites, which are indicated in the course descriptions listed in this e-Prospectus. If you are worried you might not meet these prerequisites, please contact the listed course instructor.

  • Please realise that choosing LUC as your semester abroad destination means you take up all of your courses at LUC.

At LUC, all courses are part of different Majors and Minors. As an exchange student, you will not complete the entire academic programme; the Majors and Minors therefore do not directly apply to you. Nevertheless, they might come in handy when choosing your courses, as it will allow you to search those courses that correspond to your academic interests.

Please find below and overview of the different Majors and Minors. Follow the links to see an overview of the different courses which are part of the Majors and Minors.

Majors

Minors

In addition to the courses which are part of the different Majors and Minors, there are also courses which are part of the compulsory (for degree-seeking LUC students) first-year programme and so-called Global Citizenship courses. All these courses are open to incoming exchange students as well.

The first-year courses fall under the broad categories of Global Challenges, General Education, and Academic Skills. Please click here to find the course descriptions of the first-year courses (scroll down and find courses listed as ‘Compulsory Year 1 courses’).

Click here for an overview of the Global Citizenship courses.

For the timetables and the Student Handbook (which contains information on attendance, the grading policy, etc.), please click here.

Vak EC Semester 1 Semester 2
Exchange @ Leiden University College (30 ECTS) 30

Info

INFORMATION

Timetables, courses:

Block 1: 29 August - 21 October
Block 2: 31 October - 23 December
Block 3: 6 February - 31 March
Block 4: 10 April - (Wednesday) 7 June

Timetables, exams:
Block 1: 17 October - 21 October
Block 2: 19 December - 23 December
Block 3: 27 March - 31 March
Block 4: Thursday 1 June - Wednesday 7 June UPDATED ON 23 MAY 2023

Please note: exam timetables will be published during Week 2 or Week 3 of the relevant block.

Student Handbook
The Student Handbook contains information on practical matters, but also the Course & Examination Regulations, which includes the Grading Policy, Exam protocol, etc. The Student Handbook will be published at the start of the academic year.

Student Handbook, 2022-2023: LINK

Careers

CAREERS

Studying is about more than just gaining a diploma. It is also about preparing for a professional career. How can you use this knowledge and the skills that you acquire? Which specialization should you choose within your study programme and why? What skills do you already have, and what further skills do you still want to learn? How do you translate the courses that you choose into something that you’d like to do after graduation?

These questions and more will be discussed at various times during your study programme. You may already have spoken about them with your study coordinator, the FGGA Career Service, or other students, or made use of the Leiden University Career Zone. Many different activities are organized to help you reflect on your own wishes and options, and give you the chance to explore the job market. All these activities are focused on the questions: ‘What can I do?’, ‘What do I want?’ and ‘How do I achieve my goals?’.

The Career Service main aim is to smoothen the transition from university to the job market. We can give you personal advice and we organize different events.

Each year we’re organizing a variety of activities, you can think of:

Individual career advice and a CV check

Workshops and training courses, for example 'Networking & LinkedIn ', ' CV & personal profile' or ' Interview skills'

Career Colleges in which alumni tell about their job, how they got their job and their typical workday

Information sessions, for example ‘How to find a job in the Netherlands’ or ‘Working for the EU’

Company visits (for example to embassies, different ministries, the European Commission in Brussels, Accenture or AIVD)

Internship market

Campus The Hague Career Event

You will be notified via your study programme website and Career Service email about further activities in the area of job market preparation. We hope to see you at one of our online or offline events!

Contact information:

Career Zone: Link
Email: careerservice@fgga.leidenuniv.nl
Facebook: Like the Career Service FGGA Facebook, we often share new activities, vacancies and other interesting opportunities!