Sustainable development (interdisciplinary minor)
Description
This interdisciplinary minor addresses sustainability challenges from a systems perspective, and investigates ways to sustain society within planetary boundaries.
The minor provides knowledge of society, energy and material flows, climate change, land use and biodiversity, and the interlinkages between these. You will also be taught academic skills and tools to design interdisciplinary solutions to sustainability challenges, including innovative and circular economy approaches. Moreover, you will improve a lot of practical skills like English writing, debating and presenting. In the final course of the minor, you can apply your acquired skills and knowledge to current and real-life sustainability challenges in the Netherlands, Indonesia or the Philippines.
For whom?
Whether you are a language or chemistry student, a biologist or a cultural anthropologist, the minor Sustainable Development is open and of interest to third year bachelor students from all degree programmes.
Please note that we can accommodate a maximum of 90 students. Admission is based on a first come, first served basis. Students of Leiden University are given priority over external students.
Why opt for the minor Sustainable Development?
It is a specially designed minor with courses that are closely coordinated
You will learn how the world’s major problems can be made manageable
You will work within both a local and a global context
The course uses modern teaching methods (debates, seminars, Facebook, e-learning)
The course combines academic and practical skills
You will receive extensive feedback from teachers and from your peers
Final attainment objectives for the minor Sustainable Development
After completing the minor Sustainable Development, you will be able to: A. Describe the world as a complex system of cycles and processes, and explain how that affects sustainability challenges; B. Use theory, factual knowledge and a system’s perspective to explain the drivers of sustainability challenges and how they interact with economy, culture and biodiversity; C. Analyse complex sustainability problems using various methodologies, and use the results to propose well-founded and creative ideas for solutions; D. Substantiate and defend statements and findings regarding sustainability challenges and proposed solutions to a broad audience, both verbally and in writing; E. Identify how the knowledge and skills of your major programme can contribute to managing and solving sustainability challenges; F. Recognise the value of the interdisciplinarity of the field of Sustainable Development by integrating different perspectives and sensitively interacting with people with different backgrounds.
Timetable
The minor is a full time programme lasting five months (Monday 6 September 2021 - Friday 4 February 2022). Please be aware that it is an intensive programme with lectures and tutorial group sessions throughout the week. Classes are scheduled on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays (full days!), with compulsory attendance. Tuesdays and Thursdays are reserved for occasional extra compulsory classes and independent studies, which does not mean that these are days off; you will need them to study the literature, do assignments and prepare presentations.
Registration
You can officially register for the minor Sustainable Development in uSis from 3 May 2021 onwards. The uSis class number (studie activiteit nummer) is 1061.
Registration for an elective (half minor) of 15 EC
For students who do not have the full 30 ECTS available, we have a few spots availabe for the ‘Sustainable Development: Big Issues New Answers’ course. In uSis you can register for this course only (so not for the whole minor), from 3 May 2021 onwards. The uSis class number (studie activiteit nummer) is 1062. You may need permission from the exam board of your degree programme to follow the course as an elective.
Registration students TU Delft and Erasmus University Rotterdam
Since 2015, Leiden, Delft and Erasmus have together been applying special admission criteria for their minors. To avoid students not being able to enroll for a minor at one of the other two partner universities because the programme is full, in May the three partners reserve one-third of the places in their minors for one another's students. Please note, to join this easy registration process you have to register for the Minor in May 2021 via your own university (for instance, via Osiris). You can read more about this procedure via the following page.
Other Students
In principle, the minor is also open to students of other universities and universities of applied science (HBO), provided that they are highly motivated to do so and show great commitment. Participants will be selected on the basis of a letter of motivation and order of registration. Please see this website for more information: https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/education/other-modes-of-study/minors/other-students/applying-placement
and don't forget to send us a motivation letter via minor@cml.leidenuniv.nl (do this before 7 May!).
We will let you know if you are accepted between May and June. Please make sure to also have a ‘plan B’, since we only have a limited number of available spots for guest students.
You can also register your interest. We will then keep you informed of developments regarding the minor programme through a newsletter.
Survey
As a preparation for the minor in September we ask you to submit a survey, for which you will receive an invitation. The deadline for completing the survey is 1 July. We will try as much as possible to incorporate the outcomes of the survey into our programme and class discussions.
Further information and links
If you have any questions about the programme or registration process you can contact the minor coordination team at minor coordinator.