Liberal Arts and Sciences: Global Challenges (BA/BSc)
Programme structure
The central theme of LUC's programme is on Global Challenges, and consists of four core components which are spread out over three years of study.
- Mandatory courses which lay the foundation of knowledge, such as courses focused on understanding global challenges, statistics and academic writing.
- Courses which are part of your major: these allow you to specialise in a field of interest
- Global Citizenship courses, to develop cross-cultural communication and reflection skills
- Elective space for minors, electives, study abroad or an internship
In the beginning of the study programme the focus will be on gaining the basic knowledge and laying the foundation and skills for the rest of the programme. Therefore, the mandatory courses are part of the first year as well as part of the specialisation taken from the second year onwards. The rest of the components can be moved around freely, except for the study abroad: this is always scheduled in the first semester of the third year. A more in-depth explanation of our programme is available below.
In your first year, you will follow mandatory foundational courses through which you get to learn about the four Global Challenges: Peace & Justice, Sustainability, Prosperity and Diversity. These courses introduce you to interdisciplinary thinking by showing how issues can be explored from different perspectives. By exploring many different fields and viewpoints, you get a better idea of the specialisation (Major) you might want to choose at the end of your first year.
In addition, you follow a couple of foundational academic courses, to help you in the transition from secondary school to university, and build your academic skills.
The remaining space is filled with electives: room for free choice to fill as you like. You can choose courses in the major you might want to pursue, or use the opportunity to branch out and pick something completely different.
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 combining an internship with electives.
Since everyone follows their own journey through LUC, the year can look quite different depending on your preferences, and the choices you've made. For example: Global Citizenship is listed in year 2 in our examples, but it is also possible to take it in year 3.
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, you have the exciting opportunity to experience living and studying in another country as part of your programme. The credits obtained during the study abroad period count towards your bachelor's degree. As an LUC student, you can make use of Leiden University's extensive network of exchange partners. In addition, 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)
This list is not exhaustive: for a more complete overview of our exchange partners and to use the ‘world map tool’ to browse through the options, please visit Leiden University's exchange website.
Do you want to gain experience during your studies? You can 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. Doing an internship that fits your interests can be really exciting and rewarding.
Are you thinking of looking for an internship, and requesting to receive credits for it? You may submit an application after completing your 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.
- A field course focused 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"
Sandra Schmidt-Tauscher
Global Citizenship Course
"Our trip to Oerol on Terschelling was one of my personal highlights during my time at LUC. Although every student had their own research question during the trip, it was about so much more than investigating a research question. It was about scrutinizing our own minds and beliefs, broadening our experiences, experimenting with new methods, and exploring different ways of thinking and how we come to hold our beliefs… All of that whilst getting to know the beautiful Dutch Wadden culture and environment, visiting interesting art pieces, and growing closer as a class community!
The course itself was not knowledge centered but mostly aimed at providing insights into different anthropological ways of working and approaching anthropological field work. This made it quite a practical class and I think that everyone, regardless of major, year, and personal learning intentions, could take some insights and joy from it, because you can adapt it to fit your own interests, e.g. in terms of the research questions you want to investigate, the methods you want to focus on, or how you organize your free time during the excursion. When I think back to my experience, ‘exchange’ is an important concept coming to mind. Throughout the course, we always shared experiences from our different backgrounds and interests, about the new methods we tried, lessons we learned, insights we gathered. On top of that, we met and talked to many people we would not have met otherwise, from old islanders and fishermen to artists to strangers in The Hague, learning about others’ perspectives on social, cultural, and environmental topics and sharing experiences.
If anything, I remember the class as an enjoyable learning journey and an unforgettable trip which tied all our learning experiences together."