In the second year, a region other than the ones offered by the CADS course Regional Dialogues may be studied, but only with the permission of the CADS Examination Board. Students take 10 ECTS of elective courses outside the CADS programme and may learn, for example, about Latin America, East Asia, or the Middle East.
Finding alternative regional courses
Students themselves are responsible for finding these alternative courses, in academic programmes at Leiden University or at another Dutch university. They are also responsible for requesting permission to attend replacement courses in time, as well as for course registration and scheduling.
If a student wants to take an alternative course to Regional Dialogues, it is strongly advised to start searching courses on the websites of other CADS programmes in the Netherlands, followed by exploring which area courses are offered by academic Humanities programmes.
NB. Students should be aware that many courses aren’t available for external students. Therefore it is necessary to carefully check the admission criteria before registration. Admission criteria are indicated in course descriptions in the Prospectus.
When choosing regional elective courses, students should take into account the following guidelines:
the subject must cover a number of aspects of contemporary society in a region: economy, culture, history, political design, art ... students may therefore follow multiple courses on different themes within the same region.
a region is in principle broader than a nation state, but in some cases might also cover large nation states (think of Russia, China, the US ...)
language courses are not seen as regional modules, but may instead be followed in the third year as part of the free elective space
the regional elective courses must in principle have a level of 200, but a maximum of 5 ECTS at level 100 may be recognized. Higher levels are clearly satisfactory.
Registration for alternative regional courses
If an alternative course to Regional Dialogues is attended at Leiden University, registration can take place in MyStudyMap. Students may follow courses at another university only if they meet that university’s registration requirements in time.
Permission from the BoE - filing a petition in uSis
Students need to obtain permission from the Board of Examiners to replace CADS Regional Dialogues with other regional courses. 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 for an alternative to Regional Dialogues, 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.
Add replacement courses to Area Studies (alternative for Regional Dialogues)
- 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 the course ‘Regional Dialogues’ under header “CA BA 2 Area Course”
- 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.