Security, Safety & Justice
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) Recognize safety, security and justice aspects in contemporary issues, and be able to synthesize 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) Recognize the role that SSJ issues have in their own study major, describe this role and explain it to others.
Program 2017-2018
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.
A 15 ECTS version is also available. This consists of the 3 courses in block 1.
If at the end of the minor (after the retakes are graded) you have not successfully completed all of the courses in the minor, please contact the Leiden minor coordinator as soon as possible (j.matthys@fgga.leidenuniv.nl). Failing to do so, means that you will have to register again when the minor registrations open up, and if you do not do this on time (registration fill up quickly), you will not be able to take the course again without a valid registration for the entire minor.
Start seminar
The start of the minor consists of a three day seminar in the last week of August (specifically the 29th, 30th, and 31st). Students attend guest lectures which are provided by security professionals, and all lecturers present their courses.
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.
Contact and registration
Students from Leiden University can register for the minor via uSis from 1 May 2017 until 1 August 2017 via Usis 6000MPAMN (Stud. act./class #1417).
For your questions about registration,
Check: Admission, registration and enrolment
contact 071 – 527 1111 or studielijn@leidenuniv.nl.
Other questions
Location
The SSJ minor courses will take place at Campus The Hague and Delft University of Technology, in different locations. Courses at the same location will be scheduled on the same day. Attendance is mandatory for all lectures. More information on this can be found in the course-specific information.
Schedule
Schedule Minor Security, Safety and Justice 2017
for courses that take place in The Hague only; schedules are subject to change
For the schedule of the whole program, location Delft and The Hague, see the link on the right side of this page.
Extra information
All SSJ courses are taught in English. Please check the individual course descriptions for more information.