Micro-credentials
Micro-credentials make education for professionals even more accessible. If you follow a module of 3 to 30 EC (European Credits), you receive a micro credential after completing the education program. This digital certificate is recognized by 22 universities of applied sciences and 12 universities.
How does a micro-credential work?
A micro-credential is a recognized digital certificate which showcases the knowledge, skills, and competences a professional has acquired after successfully completing a module. A micro-credential can be viewed as a kind of micro-diploma: it is a proof of quality and professional proficiency packaged in a compact learning unit. The content and quality arte safeguarded according to strict accreditation-worthy standards.
Through these credentials you show that you have achieved concrete, testable learning outcomes. Because of this both you - and your (future) employer - know that you are expanding your professional value with recognized and reliable education.
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Watch the video on the original website orHow are micro-credentials issued?
Micro-credentials are issued through the service edubadges of SURF. Edubadges is the Dutch national platform for digital certificates for Dutch higher education. Every digital certificate that has been issued on the edubadges-platform is also referred to as an edubadge. Edubadges are a collective term for diverse variants of digital certificates that can be issued with the edubadge service. A micro-credential is a specific edubadge with a nationally or even internationally recognized quality framework that has been ratified by the sector association(s).
What can you do with a micro-credential?
With a micro-credential you make your knowledge and skills visible and verifiable for employers. You can:
- Strengthen your CV with recognized, digital certificates
- Shape your professional development step by step by combining microcredentials
- Show at what level you master a subject (linked to the NLQF)
- Apply for exemption if you apply for a full-time bachelor’s- or master’s program in the future
- The microcredentials are secured and easy to check by employers or educational institutions.
What is the offer with which you can earn a micro-credential?
Algorithms in Algebra
‘Algorithms in Algebra’ is an introductory (English-language) course in computer algebra. You learn how abstract algebra becomes applicable in practical algorithms, such as efficiently factoring polynomials, working with Abelian groups, working with lattices and solving systems of polynomial equations. The course builds a bridge between theory and application, and is relevant for those who want to deepen in algebraic number theory, algebraic geometry, cryptography or computational mathematics.
Interested or looking for more information?Complex Networks
Are you involved in your work with the distribution of materials, electricity, water, energy, communication networks, social networks or other situations with an underlying network structure? And do you want to learn more about the underlying mathematical theory, techniques and algorithms? The English-language course ‘Complex Networks’ offers you the chance to deepen your knowledge and apply it directly.
Interested or looking for more information?Interactive Machine Learning
Are you working in the field of machine learning or operations research? And do you work with systems that continuously must adjust to the new incoming information to improve the results? Then the English-language course ‘Interactive Machine Learning’ may be something for you! Interactive Machine Learning focuses on making intelligent choices while simultaneously collecting data — a crucial challenge in applications without existing datasets. For companies this course offers valuable insights into data-driven decision making under uncertainty and in dynamic environments.
Interested or looking for more information?SDGs, Human Rights and International Law
The course ‘SDGs, Human Rights and International Law’ is offered by the Faculty of Governance & Global Affairs. It provides an in-depth and current insight into the legal challenges around food security in a world of conflict, poverty and climate change. From SDG 2 we explore how international law — from human rights to humanitarian and environmental law — can contribute to protecting access to food. With practice-oriented examples and legal analysis, professionals learn how law can be deployed to fight hunger and strengthen accountability mechanisms in crisis situations worldwide.
Interested or looking for more information?
Dutch national pilot micro-credentials
Leiden University participates, together with 22 universities of applied sciences and 12 universities, in the national pilot micro-credentials. Within this pilot, micro-credentials are awarded for modules of 3 to 30 EC, which have a high societal and professional value.
All participating institutions recognize each other’s micro-credentials. While the micro-credentials are not yet legally embedded in the WHW (Wet op het Hoger onderwijs en Wetenschappelijk onderzoek, Law on Higher Education and Scientific Research), work is being done to ensure official embedding.