Leiden Law School

At Leiden Law School of Leiden University, it is possible to take certain courses on a contract basis. As a contract student, you will join the regular students in the classroom. A course certificate is awarded if you pass the exam.

Contact

Juridisch PAO is the administrative point of contact to process your enrolment, the invoice, and dispatch your certificate if you pass the exam. If you have any questions, please contact us by phone on 071-5278666 or emailing us via pao@law.leidenuniv.nl.

Please note, we are unable to answer any questions related to the actual content of a course and/or general information related to education. The answer to many questions can be found on the Faculty website. Information about courses is available in the University Prospectus.

How to enrol

Decide which course you would like to follow. Information on courses is available in the Prospectus. Make sure you select the correct academic year at the top of the screen and tick the box on the left-hand side to select contract courses.

Enter the catalogue number of the course you have chosen on the enrolment form. You will also need this number to see the timetables for lectures, workgroups, or exams.
Contact the Course Coordinator to receive their permission to take the course (email address is included in the course information in the Prospectus).
Complete the enrolment form, including confirmation of admission from the Course Coordinator.

When are lectures and/or tutorials?

Use the catalogue number from the Prospectus to find information on lectures and workgroups of the correct course:

When will the examination be held?

Use the catalogue number to find information about your course. See Timetable for examinations.

Confirmation/invoice

Your application will not be dealt with if notification of approval has not been received from the Course Coordinator.
Once we have received and registered your enrolment, it is considered binding. You will receive written confirmation of your enrolment as soon as possible. An invoice will be sent to you four weeks before the start of the course at the latest.

After receiving your fully completed enrolment form, if necessary JPAO will contact the relevant course secretariat to check whether your participation is possible (partly depending on your previous qualifications). Once this approval is given, a confirmation of your enrolment and an invoice will be sent to you as soon as possible. The conditions and further procedure is provided below.

Conditions for participation

Notification of approval is required from the Course Coordinator.
Courses that have certain conditions (e.g. an internship is required, or because of limited group size only Leiden University regular law students are admitted to a particular major), are not available as a contract course. After you have applied, this can be a reason to be rejected.
Your application may also be rejected because specific prior knowledge is required. For certain courses, a certain level of prior knowledge is expected and is given as a condition for admission. If you do not have this knowledge, you are required to first take the relevant courses to gain this knowledge. If you have any doubts about this, we advise that you contact a Study adviser (in that case, let them know that you want to follow the course as a contract student).
Contract students are subject to the same requirements for participation as other students, such as preparing for lectures, writing papers and giving presentations.
Note that it is not possible to take exams in one or more elective courses in order to complete a course you have taken or intend to take. An exemption will not be given, unless in special cases the examination board decides otherwise.

Procedure after enrolment

To take part in workgroups and register for exams, check this with the course secretariat (see also information below on registering for exams). The contact details for the course secretariat can be found in the Prospectus.

Instruction material

You must purchase course readers, syllabi and books yourself. The syllabi usually include course information (required literature/topics for exam). Syllabi are available via Readeronline and you can place your order using your ULCN account via the login screen (top right "login"). If you would like to have your syllabus sooner, but do not yet have a ULCN login? Please enter the following information:

Username: JPAO

Password: Contractonderwijs2015

After entering certain personal information, you will receive an instruction via email which you can use to order the syllabus of the course you are taking.

U-account

You will be enrolled at Leiden University as a contract student. The Student Affairs Front Office will send you a letter with your ‘U-account’ and password, which you can use to log in to the Leiden University Community Network giving you certain rights. If your account is not working, please contact the IT Helpdesk on 071-527 8888. The following services will then be available to you (temporarily) for the course you have enrolled in, for example:

Access to the PCs in all computer rooms at Leiden Law School, the University Library, and Plexus.
Access to the digital learning platform Brightspace, provided this is used by the course in question.
Access to the electronic catalogi of the University Library and many other libraries (including Kluwerplaza) via UB- Information Portal.
Being able to order online campus license software via Surfspot.
If required, using your ‘U-account’ you can get a (temporary) card to borrow books from the Faculty Library (located at Steenschuur 25).

Brightspace

Courses are supported by the digital learning platform Brightspace. It provides course information, past exams to practise with, course announcements etc.
To gain access to Brightspace as a contract student, you should send an email to the relevant course secretariat with the subject: Registration in Brightspace; contract student. In the email, give your username (your so-called U-account) and the course/courses you want to be registered for in Brightspace including the catalogue number in the Prospectus. The secretariat will then add your username to the relevant course. You should send your email two weeks before the start of the course. If you have any problems when using Brightspace, please contact the course secretariat or go to the Brightspace support site.

Registering for teaching and exams

As a contract student, you should register for classes and exams directly via the course secretariat (NOT via uSis!). This is contrary to the regular students who do have to register via uSis.
Note: The deadline for registering for the exam is 10 days before the date of the exam via the course secretariat, stating clearly that you are a CONTRACT STUDENT. They will then add you to the attendance list manually. You must do this either in person, by telephone, or by email. Make sure you receive written confirmation from the secretariat of your registration for the exam (e.g. by email).

Teaching and exam period

Teaching is done in semesters, and is concluded with an exam, usually after teaching has been completed in the next teaching block.

Sitting exams

The dates for exams are stated in the exam timetable. Make sure you use the correct catalogue number in the Prospectus to find the date of your exam.

When taking the exam, you must show your ID. Point out that you are a contract student. Make sure you bring the written confirmation of your exam registration from the course secretariat.

Note: Your name will have been added manually to the attendance list for the exam by the course secretariat. If, for some reason, your name is not on the list, you must go to the lecturer/invigilator at the exam and explain that you are a contract student, and not a regular student.

After passing the exam

You will receive a certificate from JPAO (be aware that the lecturer has minimum 15 days to grade the exam). The certificate will only be sent once the relevant lecturer has handed in an exam grade slip. The certificate will state the grade you have received for the exam as well as the number of ECTS credits.

Course fee

The course fee is calculated using the number of ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) credits for a course. The course information on the Prospectus states the number of ECTS credits. The course fee is €150 for each ECTS credit (free of VAT). This includes the exam and (if necessary) the resit, and excludes any study materials to be purchased (e.g. syllabi and required literature). The alumni discount does not apply to contract courses.

Cancellation

If you decide to cancel your enrolment, please notify Juridisch PAO of this in writing. We use the date we received your notification as the date of cancellation. You are responsible for ensuring your cancellation is received. Therefore, always request a confirmation of receipt.

If you cancel:

up to 8 weeks before the start of the course, 75 euros in administration costs will be charged.
between 4 to 8 weeks before the start of the course, 10% of the course fee will be charged.
Between 4 to 2 weeks before the start of the course, 50% of the course fee will be charged.
2 weeks or less before the start of the course, the full course fee will be charged.

Studying law in general

If you would like more information about studying law in general, please see the faculty website. To request a brochure about the regular law programmes, you can contact the Study Line on 071 - 527 1111 / studielijn@ics.leidenuniv.nl. For specific questions related to studying law (and possibilities for full-time/part-time studying) please call 071-527 4865. If you think you are entitled to an exemption as a result of your prior education, contact one of the Study advisers.

For specific questions, please contact the study adviser:
Mr J de Leeuw, 071-527 8787 J.deLeeuw@law.leidenuniv.nl