International Relations and Organisations (BSc)
Application and admission
The Leiden University Political Science bachelor’s programme enjoys a high popularity. To assure the quality of education, the number of students it admits is limited. This is known as a 'numerus fixus'. If there are more applications than this ‘numerus fixus’, a selection and placement procedure will determine which applicants will be offered a place in the programme. This means that we cannot guarantee all applicants enrollment, even if they meet all entry requirements. Furthermore, applicants must register their application by an earlier deadline (15 January) and meet several strict deadlines.
Procedure for 2025-2026 will be announced soon
The procedures and deadlines mentioned below are valid for applications for the academic year 2024-2025.
In Spring 2024 we will update this section.
Roadmap to academic year 2024-2025
- Check the entry requirements.
- Check the application deadlines.
- Register yourself in Studielink.
- Collect the required documents.
- Participate in the selection procedure.
- Finalise your application and pay the tuition fee.
Placement 2024-2025
Update 30 April 2024: Applicants with ranking numbers up until 792 have been offered a place.
(This information is updated bi-weekly.)
Numerus fixus: general
For specific programmes, universities in the Netherlands set a quota for the number of students who can be allocated a place. This quota is called numerus fixus. In practice, it means that you are not assured of a place if you apply for such a numerus fixus programme. If there are more applications than available places, a ranking list of applications will be established through a selection procedure. This ranking determines which applicants will be offered one of the available places first. If a place is not accepted within the set term, it will be offered to the next applicant on the ranking list. In other words: the higher your ranking, the greater your chance of being offered a place and the sooner you will be offered one of the available places. The placement procedure runs from 15 April to 31 August.
Numerus fixus: Political Science
For Leiden University’s BSc programme in Political Science the numerus fixus has been set at a total of 600 students for all the Political Science BSc programme tracks combined: the BSc Politicologie, the specialisation Internationale Politiek (both taught in Leiden, partially in Dutch) and the specialisation International Relations and Organisations (based in The Hague and fully English-taught).
Numerus fixus: selection criteria
The selection procedure for Political Science is based on these criteria:
- the average grades of your previous education (30%),
- your score in the online assessment, part 1 (50%) and
- your score in the online assessment, part 2 (20%).
Ranking number
On the basis of these criteria in mid-April, all applicants in the selection and placement procedure receive a ranking number. The available places are initially offered to the participants with the ranking numbers between 1 and 600.
Each place that is not accepted within two weeks, is automatically offered to the next highest applicant. Also, when applicants withdraw from the selection and placement procedure, the free spot is directly offered to the next candidate on the ranking list. Places are offered (and have to be accepted) via Studielink until all available places have been accepted, which may continue until very shortly before the actual start of the programme.
In practice, this means that
- ranking numbers higher than 600 may very well give access to the programme;
- it is difficult to predict how many places will be freed up and reallocated from one applicant to another;
- you will have to assess yourself whether and how long you would like to wait for a place offer, if you haven’t received one yet
- you may have to apply for visa and residence permit before having been offered a place.