In your first year, you follow the mandatory foundational courses in the four Global Challenges: Peace & Justice, Sustainability, Prosperity and Diversity. The four mandatory Global Challenge courses introduce you to interdisciplinary thinking by showing how issues can be explored from different perspectives. These courses also help you in choosing your specialisation (Major) at the end of your first year.

The first year also includes other mandatory general skills courses which will help you in the transition from secondary education to university and to build your academic skills. The following courses of the first year are mandatory general skills courses:

• The four Global Challenges courses
• Academic writing
• Mathematics
• Statistics
• History of philosophy

The remaining space is filled with electives which you can use to explore your interests.

At the end of the first year, you choose a specialisation based on your interests. LUC offers six specialisations called Majors. Each major has mandatory foundational courses which lay the foundation of knowledge. However, more than half of your major courses are chosen by you from the courses on offer.

In your second year, you can also follow courses for your Global Citizenship component and follow courses to fill up your elective space. Please note that if you wish to fill up your elective space to study abroad, your second year will mostly be filled with Major courses. This is because you will use your elective space for study abroad and this will be a whole semester in your third year.

In your third and final year, you continue with your major courses and other programme components. If you wish to study abroad, you can do so in the first semester of your third year. It is also possible to fill up your elective space with a minor at Leiden University or by doing an internship.

You end your third year by writing a Capstone Bachelor thesis, which is a final piece of independent research in which you apply the knowledge, analytical, and methodological skills you have acquired during your studies. Each student has an academic supervisor for the thesis from among our staff, who will guide you through the process.

In the first semester of the third year, LUC offers students the exciting and challenging opportunity to experience living and studying in another country as part of their programme. The credits obtained during the study abroad period count towards your bachelor's degree. In addition to participation in the university-wide schemes, LUC has its own unique exchange agreements with a select group of universities and colleges such as:

• Macalester College
• Sciences Po Paris
• Bocconi University
• Australian National University
• National University Singapore
• National Taiwan University
• Rykkio University Tokyo
• Yonsei (South Korea)

Of course, there are more exchange agreements. For more information and to use the ‘world map tool’ to browse through the options, please visit this website.

LUC students also have the opportunity to do an internship for credits, a maximum of 5 ECTS that counts as an elective course. Doing an internship provides you with a great opportunity to apply the content covered in a classroom setting in real-life situations. We encourage research internships, in which students participate in research programs (e.g., to get data for their capstone projects), as well as work-oriented internships.

Examples of internships include (but are certainly not limited to!) research in a science lab, a summer position at an embassy and working at an NGO or archive. We encourage students to find an organisation that fits their interests.

Students may only submit applications for an internship for credits after completing their first year at LUC. More details regarding internships for LUC's programme can be found on this website.

The Global Citizenship component links the global with the local and tries to link what you learn in the classroom to the environment you live in. It is an important element of the Liberal Arts and Sciences approach to education. It offers various options to develop your cross-cultural communication and reflection skills and to increase your appreciation of cultural and social diversity. This can be done by learning another language or by taking one of the Global Citizenship classes:

• The College Project: individual and group research projects aimed at informing pedagogical and institutional practice at LUC by studying the history and politics of higher education.
• Field course in Sustainable Livelihoods
• Language courses in Dutch, Arabic, French, Spanish or Russian. Any other language course taken at Leiden University is accepted as well
• Course Postcolonial world