Prospectus

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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.

LUC’s teaching methods are intensive and small-scale. Through our residential setting students are stimulated to also grow outside the classroom through a variety of extracurricular activities. The ultimate goal the programme aims to achieve is woven into the motto of LUC, ‘Building Knowledge for a Better World’. Our graduates aspire to make a true difference in the world they live in.

LUC 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.

Programme

PROGRAMME @ LUC

First-year compulsory courses (45 EC)
First-year elective courses (15 EC)
Major (80 EC)
Minor, Electives, or Semester Abroad (30 EC)
Global Citizenship (10 EC)

Please note:

  • 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 30 EC elective component.

Important Acronyms

EES: Earth, Energy, and Sustainability
GED: Governance, Economics, and Development
GPH: Global Public Health
HD: Human Diversity
IJ: International Justice
WP: World Politics

SBE: Social & Business Entrepreneurship
GS: Gender Studies
J: Journalism
L: Languages
PSY: Psychology

GC: Global Citizenship

Year 1

Overview
Block 1: a) Global Challenges: Peace & Justice, b) Academic Writing, c) History of Philosophy, d) History of Science
Block 2: a) Global Challenges: Sustainability, b) Academic Writing, c) History of Philosophy, d) Elective
Block 3: a) Global Challenges: Prosperity, b) Statistics, c) Elective
Block 4: a) Global Challenges: Diversity, b) Mathematical Reasoning or Mathematical Modeling, c) Elective

The first-year programme also allows students to enroll in three 5 EC elective courses in blocks 2, 3, and 4 (15 EC in total). 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 EC may be used towards fulfilling the 80 EC or 30 E requirement for a Major or Minor, respectively. As their first-year elective courses, students may select any of the 100-level courses below.

Course EC Semester 1 Semester 2

Compulsory Year 1 courses

Global Challenges: Peace & Justice 5
History of Science 5
Academic Writing 5
History of Philosophy 5
Global Challenges: Sustainability 5
Global Challenges: Prosperity 5
Statistics 5
Global Challenges: Diversity 5
Mathematical Modelling 5
Mathematical Reasoning 5

Elective Year 1 courses

Not available to first-year students (no elective in Block 1)

Calculus 5
Comparative Criminal Justice Systems 5
Foundations of Common Pool Resource Management 5

Available to first-year students

Introduction to Gender Studies 5
Introduction to Comparative Politics 5
Introduction to International Relations & Diplomacy 5
Institutions of Governance and Development 5
Principles of Economics 5
Principles of Public International Law 5
Social Theory in Everyday Life 5
Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies 5
Sovereignty and Statehood 5
Essentials of Journalism 5
Health Systems and Management 5
Introduction to Logic and Epistemology 5
Introduction to Psychology 5
Sociolinguistics 5
Energy and Resource Management 5
Introduction to Epidemiology and Global Public Health 5
Birth of the Modern World 5
Socio-legal Studies 5
Earth System Science 5
Environmental Science 5
Introduction to Globalization and Transnational Politics 5
What is Culture? 5
Biology 5
Business Model Generation 5
Chemistry 5
Media and Communication Theory 5
Physics 5
Social Determinants of Health 5
Culture, Migration and Health 5
Summer Field School 2018: Field Methods in Environmental Sustainability 5
Health, Society and History 5
Philosophies of the World 5

Majors

MAJORS @ LUC

The following Majors are offered at LUC:

Earth, Energy, and Sustainability (BSc) Global Public Health (BSc) Governance, Economics, and Development (BSc) Human Diversity (BA) International Justice (BA) World Politics (BA)

Every Major consists of 80 EC worth of courses; specific requirements are listed on the pages of the Majors.

Electives

MINORS, ELECTIVES & SEMESTER ABROAD @ LUC

Apart from the 15EC of elective courses in Year 1, there is an additional electives component amounting to 30 EC 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 six pre-structured Minors, consisting of a coherent 30 EC package of courses, including 10 EC in 300-level courses: Gender Studies, Journalism, Languages, Philosophy, Psychology, and Social & Business Entrepreneurship.

  • Minor in a Major; in consultation with their tutor, students select a combination of 30 EC 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 30 EC of electives. This option requires a set of elective courses (30 EC) 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 30 EC. 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.

Course EC Semester 1 Semester 2
Great Books 5

Global Citizenship

GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP @ LUC

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 (10 EC) students have five options:

Course EC Semester 1 Semester 2

100-level

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

200-level

Paradoxes of Citizenship 5
Community Project 10
Dutch - Elementary 10
French - Elementary 10
Spanish - Elementary 10
Urban Studies 5
Searching for Sustainable Livelihoods: Field Course in East Africa and The Netherlands 10
Russian - Elementary 10

300-level

French - Intermediate 10
Spanish - Intermediate 10
SPOC: Development Project Management 10

400-level

French - Advanced 10
Spanish - Advanced 10

Research Clinics

Research Clinics 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. All clinics can be used as an elective within the students' elective space. Please note students can use only one research clinic towards the 180 ECTS necessary to graduate. Any additional clinics will count as extracurricular activities.

Admissions requirements

  • Academic writing (or equivalent)

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

  • Second or third year students only

Registration Semester 2, 2017-2018

If you are interested in one of the clinics below, please submit a brief motivation by 1 January 2018 to course.administration@luc.leidenuniv.nl. We hope to be able to inform students about their application by 17 January.

Clinics, Semester 1, 2017-2018

Clinics, Semester 2, 2017-2018

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 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
Earth, Energy, and Sustainability
Global Public Health
Governance, Economics, and Development
Human Diversity
International Justice
World Politics

Minors
Gender Studies
Journalism
Languages
Psychology
Social and Business Entrepreneurship

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’).

There are various types of Global Citizenship courses: semester-long language courses (in Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, French, Russian, and Spanish), the Urban Studies course and the Community Project. 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.

Timetables

TIMETABLES @ LUC

Timetables 2017-2018

Once available, the timetables of 2017-2018 will be published here.

Semester 1, Block 1 (28 August - 20 October) (updated: 16 August 2017) Semester 1, Block 1 – Examinations (updated: 13-09-2017) Semester 1, Block 2 (30 October - 22 December) (updated: 24 October 2017) Semester 1, Block 2 – Examinations (updated: 16 November 2017) Semester 2, Block 3 (5 February - 30 March) (updated: 8 February 2018) Semester 2, Block 3 – Examinations Semester 2, Block 4 (9 April - 6 June) (updated: 4 April 2018) Semester 2, Block 4 – Examinations (updated: 23 April 2018)

Information

Student Handbook & OER 2017-2018

Link

Capstone 2017-2018

Link

Double Degree Studies

Link

Contact Hours Year 1

Link (coming soon)