Universiteit Leiden

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Minors

Would you like to check out a different study programme while following your own? Or perhaps you’d like to delve deeper into a field of expertise? A minor is an excellent way of adding your own flavour to your study programme.

What is a minor?

A minor is a cohesive set of courses that allows you to broaden your knowledge and skills or focus on a specific subject area. Most minors are one semester in duration and consist of 30 credits (ECs), which is equal to the number of ‘elective credits’ available in most bachelor’s programmes. However, as some bachelor’s programmes allow only 15 elective credits, you can also opt to follow half a minor. In terms of level, minors are most suitable for students in the third year of their bachelor’s.

Why follow a minor?

  • A minor represents an excellent opportunity to look beyond the confines of your own study programme.
  • All faculties offer a broad selection of minors, in total more than 60. Which means you should be able to find something that really holds your interest for a whole semester.
  • By following a minor that examines a topic in depth, you can specialise in a field of expertise.
  • Some minors grant access to master's programmes that you might otherwise not be eligible to follow.

Special minors

There are several special minors, and these contribute to various programmes:

  • Brain and Cognition
  • Human Evolution
  • Entrepreneurship for Society
  • Sustainable Development

Joint minor offer Leiden, Delft and Rotterdam

How about following a minor at a different university? Leiden University, TU Delft and Erasmus University Rotterdam (LDE) each reserve a third of their minor spots for students from the two other universities.

Together with our LDE partners TU Delft and Erasmus University Rotterdam, we have also developed a number of multidisciplinary minors.

Full range of LDE minors

In the e-Prospectus you can find information on all minors offered by Leiden University.

Full range of Leiden University minors

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