Positive assessment NVAO committee of new master’s degree programme Law & Society
Last week an audit committee from the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders (NVAO) visited the Wijnhaven building at Campus The Hague to review the proposed new English-taught master’s degree programme ‘Law & Society: Governance and Global Development’.
The committee’s assessment of the proposed master's programme, developed by the Van Vollenhoven Institute, was unreservedly positive: 'A truly interdisciplinary programme that offers something new to students', was the conclusion of committee chairwoman Elaine Mak, professor and Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Law, Economics and Governance at Utrecht University. She went on to praise the quality of the staff and the embedding of the programme in research, the social programme that has been set up for the international students, and the assessment system including quality control by the Board of Examiners.
Previously the Minister of Education, advised by the Higher Education Efficiency Committee (CDHO), had concluded that a need existed for this programme on the labour market and in academia and society. The programme can therefore be launched as a regular government-funded master’s degree programme, for which students from the Netherlands and other EEA countries will pay the lower, statutory university fee (and not the higher fee unless they have already completed a master’s programme).
September 2020
The programme is scheduled to start in September 2020 and will be taught at Leiden University premises in The Hague. The Hague is the city of ‘peace and justice’ where international law, peace and security and politics and governance are central themes. Organisations – such as government institutions, international organisations, NGOs – are established here that are concerned with these themes, the focus of this programme.
The Law and Society master’s programme is interdisciplinary and studies law from a social science and empirical approach. By combining knowledge and methodology from sociology, anthropology and legal, political and business science, it offers an integral study of the cohesion between law and society. In addition, the master’s programme will be aimed at both the ‘Global North' and the 'Global South' – and also at graduates (from law, social science or interdisciplinary bachelor’s programmes) from both regions. Upon successful completion of the programme, students will be awarded an MSc degree.