Liberal Arts and Sciences: Global Challenges (BA/BSc) - Leiden University College

Global Challenges

What are Global Challenges?

Global challenges are complex issues facing humanity and the planet which often occur together. They cannot be solved by one nation, institution or point of view. Only through interdisciplinary cooperation between academics, governments, organisations and citizens can these global challenges be understood and tackled.

How do they connect to LUC's programme?

One of the best ways to grasp complex issues is by combining insights, knowledge and skills from different fields. A Liberal Arts & Sciences programme offers the flexibility to combine courses from different disciplines. By doing this, you are introduced to different schools of thought, reasoning and analysis. By looking at Global Challenges through the lens of different disciplines you will develop a unique perspective on the world and its issues. 

Our small classes invite you to engage with fellow class mates from around the world, under the guidance of our inspired teachers. Studying Liberal Arts & Sciences at LUC gives you a unique analytical mindset to engage with challenges and discussions head-on.

In the first year at LUC, you will gain the basic knowledge you need as the foundation for the rest of your programme. In the first semester, you will follow the course "Global Challenges: Understanding". The course will help you understand what Global Challenges are, and what makes them so complex. In the second semester you will put what you've learned into practice, during "Global Challenges: Engagement". You will investigate what Global Challenges play out on the local level, and how different bodies and groups of people engage with them. From the second year onwards, you will choose a specialisation (major) to look at the Global Challenges from a main academic discipline.

Special Label "Sustainable Higher Education"

In 2025, Leiden University College became the first university programme in the Netherlands to receive the special “Sustainable Higher Education” label from the NVAO, the Dutch-Flemish Accreditation Organisation.

Programmes can earn this label when the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) play an important role in their curriculum. LUC’s focus on Global Challenges is largely inspired by the SDGs.

The requirements for the Sustainable Higher Education-label include, among others:

• Transmitting and developing knowledge about sustainability in relation to one or more SDGs,
• Exploring interconnections between the SDGs,
• Developing a solution-oriented attitude toward the SDGs,
• Fostering a sense of responsibility, integrity, respect, and personal and social leadership,
• Organizational development,
• Developing behaviors and skills such as interdisciplinary collaboration, engaging in ethical debates, and systems thinking,
• Cultivating social intelligence alongside other forms of intelligence.

With LUC’s interdisciplinary and challenging curriculum centered on Global Challenges, our close-knit international community, and our emphasis on diverse learning methods and student development both within and beyond the classroom, this new label suits us perfectly. We are proud to have been awarded this distinction!