How to Compose a Personalized Elective Package
The free elective space of 30 ECTS can also be composed by a selection of electives from different Dutch academic programmes, either at Leiden University or other Dutch universities.
You can browse and search for elective courses at Leiden University in this Prospectus (other Dutch universities have their own course catalogues). As not all courses are open to external students, please make sure to tick the box ‘Elective choice’ under ‘Course type’ in the filter menu. Any additional information, such as the course level, language, description and registration deadline, will be displayed in the course description.
Elective courses or a minor followed at other Dutch universities are also known as ‘external education’. For these, you must enrol as a guest student at the other university. Please contact the host university on how to enrol for the course.
The following guidelines from the Board of Examiners for approval of electives will help in selecting appropriate courses:
A maximum of 10 ECTS at level 100 is permitted as a third-year elective course, the other courses (at least 20 ECTS) must be at level 200 or higher.
In principle, electives should fall within the areas of social sciences, behavioural sciences, archaeology, the humanities, economics, public administration, or law. Academic language courses are suitable, with the exception of English language proficiency courses. Subjects from other disciplines may be added to the elective space, but students must state their motivation and the courses’ coherence with the rest of the CADS programme.
Subjects followed at universities of applied sciences (HBO's), are not suitable for filling in the free elective space, with the exceptions of the photography courses at the Royal Academy of Art in the Conservatoire (KABK) and some music theory subjects at The Royal Conservatoire in The Hague.
Please note:
Students who do a CADS internship and thereby earn 10-20 ECTS (depending on the overall size of the internship) for the free elective space, need to fill in only the remaining 20-10 ECTS with free elective courses.
Students may take more than 30 ECTS of elective courses, but should not forget to mark them as extracurricular education in their uSis study requirements (please see below or otherwise consult the SSC for more information).
Taking Electives Abroad
Free electives can be followed abroad through the exchange/study abroad programme. Students must apply to study abroad well in advance, before specific application deadlines. More information about studying abroad can be found on Brightspace (CADS Study & Career). If you have any questions about studying abroad, please contact the CADS Exchange Coordinator.
Before going abroad: Courses taken in the context of study abroad should be approved in advance by the CADS Board of Examiners by way of the Learning Agreement. Please contact the CADS Exchange Coordinator for more information.
After return: After returning to Leiden, students should submit a petition in uSis along with official transcripts of records to the SSC, so that courses and their results may be definitively added to Bachelor’s programme courses in uSis. Below you can find more information on submitting the petition.
Please note that all grades from courses abroad will be converted to Pass or Fail to ensure consistency across different grading systems. As such, grades from electives taken abroad will not have an effect on the cum laude regulations.
Permission from the BoE - filing a petition in uSis
All the elective packages must be explicitly be approved by the Board of Examiners. This can be accomplished by submitting a petition in uSis, requesting approval for the selected courses as outlined below. The petition should include a motivation in which you describe at least how these courses meet the requirements, as well as the added value of these courses to your study program. Ensure that you file your petition well in advance to secure approval before commencing the courses.
Below are the descriptions of the various methods for filing a petition, depending on the courses you have taken and whether you want to include them in your requirements or your extracurricular space. Please ensure you follow the appropriate instructions. If you have questions about which of the instructions apply to you, you can contact the SSC.
Below you will find the following instructions:
1. Add an elective to the Free Elective space (Dutch Universities)
2. Add an elective to the Extracurricular space (Dutch Universities)
3. Add an elective to the Free Elective space (Universities abroad)
4. Add an elective to the Extracurricular space (Universities abroad)
1. Add an elective to the Free Elective space (Dutch Universities)
- Open uSis and navigate to your “Academic Requirements”. These can be reached by:
Clicking on the white schedule on the left (Units taken / Units required)
Clicking on “Enroll” and then on “Enroll by My requirements”
- Click on one of the empty “dummy courses” under header “CA BA 3 Free Electives”
- Click on the “submit request”-button and choose the “Replacement”-type in the drop-down menu.
- Fill out the information needed:
“Course”: click on the magnifying glass and search for the course providing the Catalog Number from the E-Prospectus. Choose the code ending with a “Y”.
“Explanation student”: describe the reason for filing the petition (i.e. you would like to add this course as an elective).
- Click on “Add course” to add more electives (if applicable).
- For this type of petition it is not necessary to upload documents supporting your request.
- Provide a weblink to the description of the course(s) in the E-Prospectus.
- Submit the petition.
As soon as the courses have been approved by the Board of Examiners, the course will be transferred to your Academic Requirements in uSis.
2. Add an elective to the extracurricular space (Dutch Universities)
- Open uSis and navigate to your “Academic Requirements”. These can be reached by:
Clicking on the white schedule on the left (Units taken / Units required)
Clicking on “Enroll” and then on “Enroll by My requirements”
- Scroll down to the end of the page and open the Extracurricular space (= the blue bar named “Extracurriculair”)
- Click on the green triangle that has appeared (next to “Extracurricular Courses & Activities”). Some empty “dummy courses” (named “Extracurricular Course”) should now be visible.
- Click on one of the dummy courses (i.e. 6490ext01). Please do not use the old code 9999excub.
- Click on the “submit request”-button and choose the “Replacement”-type in the drop-down menu.
- Fill out the information needed:
“Course”: click on the magnifying glass and search for the course providing the Catalog number from the E-Prospectus. Press the “search”-button. Choose the code ending with a “Y”
“Explanation student”: describe the reason for filing the petition (i.e. adding this course to your academic requirements as an extracurricular course)
- Click on “Add course” to add more courses (if applicable).
- For this type of petition it is not necessary to upload documents supporting your request.
- Provide a weblink to the description of the course(s) in the E-Prospectus.
- Submit the petition.
As soon as the courses have been approved by the Board of Examiners, the course will be transferred to your Academic Requirements in uSis.
3. Add an elective to the Free Elective space (Universities abroad)
NOTE: Please submit this petition after your return to Leiden. The initial approval of the courses by the Board of Examiners is based on the Learning Agreement which must be submitted before your departure.
- Open uSis and navigate to your “Academic Requirements”. These can be reached by:
Clicking on the white schedule on the left (Units taken / Units required)
Clicking on “Enroll” and then on “Enroll by My requirements”
- Click on one of the empty “dummy courses” under header “CA BA3 Free Electives”, for example “Electives from other progr.”
- Click on the “submit request”-button and choose the “External Education”-type in the drop-down menu.
- Fill out the information needed:
”External organization”: fill out the name of the university you’ll be taking the course at
“Original course name”: fill out the full name of the course name.
“English translation course name”: fill out the full name of the course. Please note: Do not translate the course title yourself, but use the official English course title. If the offical English course title is not available, please copy the original course title in the English field.
“Requested units”: fill out the amount of ECTS
“Explanation student”: describe the reason for filing the petition (i.e. you would like to add this course as an elective).
- Click on “Add external education” to add more electives (if applicable).
- Upload documents supporting your request, if applicable (i.e. course description, a certified transcript in case the course was taken at a university outside of Leiden University, etc.). If you’ve taken courses abroad, please provide your exchange coordinator with the genuine original documents. We regularly perform a sample check.
- Provide a weblink to a description of the course(s), if applicable.
- Submit the petition.
Please email the SSC a certified transcript of grades from the University you’ve taken the course(s) at. If you have any question concerning your exchange, please contact the CADS exchange coordinator. In case you have specific questions about filing the petition for the courses you have taken abroad, please contact the SSC.
4. Add an elective to the extracurricular space (Universities abroad)
NOTE: Please submit this petition after your return to Leiden. The initial approval of the courses by the Board of Examiners is based on the Learning Agreement which must be submitted before your departure.
- Open uSis and navigate to your “Academic Requirements”. These can be reached by:
Clicking on the white schedule on the left (Units taken / Units required)
Clicking on “Enroll” and then on “Enroll by My requirements”
- Scroll down to the end of the page and open the Extracurricular space (= the blue bar named “Extracurriculair”)
- Click on the green triangle that has appeared (next to “Extracurricular Courses & Activities”). Some empty “dummy courses” (named “Extracurricular Course”) should now be visible.
- Click on one of the dummy courses (i.e. 6490ext01). Please do not use the old code 9999excub.
- Click on the “submit request”-button and choose the “External Education”-type in the drop-down menu.
- Fill out the information needed:
”External organization”: fill out the name of the university you’ll be taking the course at
“Original course name”: fill out the full name of the course name.
“English translation course name”: fill out the full name of the course. Please note: Do not translate the course title yourself, but use the official English course title. If the offical English course title is not available, please copy the original course title in the English field.
“Requested units”: fill out the amount of ECTS
“Explanation student”: describe the reason for filing the petition (i.e. you would like to add this course as an elective).
- Click on “Add external education” to add more electives (if applicable).
- Upload documents supporting your request, if applicable (i.e. course description, a certified transcript in case the course was taken at a university outside of Leiden University, etc.). If you taken courses abroad, please provide your exchange coordinator with the genuine original documents. We regularly perform a sample check.
- Provide a weblink to a description of the course(s), if applicable.
- Submit the petition.
Please email the SSC a certified transcript of grades from the University you’ve taken the course(s) at. If you have any question concerning your exchange, please contact the CADS exchange coordinator. In case you have specific questions about filing the petition for the courses you have taken abroad, please contact the SSC.