Security, Safety and Justice
Security, Safety and Justice, 2023-2024
How do we protect our society against terrorism? Can we secure the complex world of cyberspace? Are self-driving cars safe enough? Who is responsible if something goes wrong? How do we balance surveillance and privacy?
The media pays attention to these questions with regard to safety, security and justice every day, so it is not surprising the topic deserves academic attention as well. This minor will provide you with the basic academic knowledge to understand the background of these questions better. The emphasis in the minor lies on the “security” element. The minor SSJ enables you to broaden your horizon regarding security-related topics in society.
The knowledge base that this minor offers to analyse security-related topics is multidisciplinary, and centres around three broad academic themes, which are connected to specific academic fields:
Security
Safety
Justice
Security covers a broad range of research fields encompassing criminology, antiterrorism studies, and security management; the safety theme contributes via insights from risk management; and justice provides important concepts from legal studies, history and philosophy. Knowledge of essential concepts from all of these fields is necessary to understand and analyse today’s security and safety issues. This unique blend of knowledge from social and technical sciences allows students of the minor SSJ to address and analyse current-day security-related topics.
To provide this broad spectrum of knowledge to students TU Delft and Leiden University set up a cooperation. Leiden University primarily contributes with knowledge from the fields of public administration and legal and antiterrorism studies. TU Delft contributes in the areas of risk analysis and risk management, technology assessment, and system analyses.
Objectives
The minor SSJ gives insight into security issues you read about in the newspaper: terrorist threats, criminality, integrated security and stability. Basic knowledge and research techniques are acquired centered around three themes: security, safety, and justice.
The insights and analyses are applied to current topics, for example in the transport sector, critical infrastructure, and cyber security.
After completion of the minor, students will be able to:
i) Recognise safety, security and justice aspects in contemporary issues, and be able to synthesise scientific arguments for their presence.
ii) Form an opinion on SSJ issues, which is grounded in scientific analysis and argumentation.
iii) Apply basic analytical techniques to contemporary SSJ issues. These techniques include: system analysis, risk analysis and perpetrator analysis.
iv) Assess the value of scientific publications and use them in the analysis of SSJ issues, and be able to find publications that give deeper insight in these contemporary issues.
v) Recognise the role that SSJ issues have in their own study major, describe this role and explain it to others.
Programme 2023-2024
The minor consists of 6 courses of 5 ECTS each and takes place during the first semester. The semester is divided into two blocks of eight weeks each. In every block, three courses are taught. You can also register to only follow the three courses in block one, which count for a total of 15 ECTS.
Please be aware that the SSJ minor needs to be completed in one academic year. If you have not passed all courses during one academic year, please contact the board of examiners of the Institute of Security and Global Affairs well in advance.
Start seminar
The SSJ minor starts with an opening event to give a first introduction into the minor and the themes security, safety, and justice. Attendance to this opening event is mandatory.
Goals and target audience
The minor is multidisciplinary in nature, and is taught by lecturers from both the Faculty of Governance & Global Affairs at Campus The Hague, and from the Faculty of Technology, Policy & Management of TU Delft. The courses take place in The Hague and Delft, respectively.
The maximum number of participants is 140. Priority is given to students from Leiden University, TU Delft, and Erasmus University Rotterdam. Leiden University and TU Delft each have 60 reserved spots, EUR has 20. It is first past the post system, no waiting list is used, and once the maximum amount of participants is reached, no new admissions will be allowed any more. Students from other Universities can apply.
Students of the Bachelor Security Studies will not be able to enrol in this minor since the content is similar, fully or in part, to compulsory components in their bachelors programme. This minor is not accessible for HBO students.
Contact and registration
Students from Leiden University, TU Delft and Erasmus can register for the minor via eduXchange from 8 May 13.00 h until 31 May 2023.
For your questions about registration,
Check: Admission, registration and enrolment
Contact 071 – 527 1111 or studielijn@leidenuniv.nl.
Other questions
Dedicated email address: ssj@fgga.leidenuniv.nl
Location
The SSJ minor courses will take place at Campus The Hague and Delft University of Technology, in different locations. More information on this can be found in the course-specific information.
Schedule
The online timetables show an overview of all your courses, locations and starting and ending times per semester. Please note that the timetables can be subject to changes if required, so please check regularly. At the right hand side of this page, the timetables of the Leiden University courses can be found.
Extra information
All SSJ courses are taught in English. Please check the individual course descriptions for more information. The Minor SSJ Course Handbook can be found on the right hand side of the page.