BA/BSc Liberal Arts and Sciences: Global ChallengesAdd to shortlist

Programme profile

The programme takes place in the Hague, at Leiden University College [LUC], a college of Leiden University.

Students gain broad knowledge of the wider world, but also study one area of interest more deeply: their "major".

Within the framework provided by the institution, the students have the responsibility to compose their own individual programme. LUC offers you a broad, interdisciplinary curriculum, with freedom to design your own study programme in accordance with your own personal interests and ambitions. The LUC majors all have their own perspectives on global challenges and offer a framework within which students attain a degree of depth in disciplines while integrating knowledge from various disciplines.

The college offers a flexible and versatile curriculum framed by pressing questions of peace, justice and sustainability; these questions are nuanced and developed through a matrix of individual courses that can be sequenced together into coherent, progressive tracks, which can then in turn be combined to form majors that will determine the exit trajectory of LUC graduates. In general, our majors are thematically rather than disciplinary-oriented and each of them culminates in a final 'capstone project'.

Tuition Fee includes standard statutory Tuition Fee of Eur 2601 plus an Institutional Fee of Eur 2892 

Note that LUC  offers Scholarships for exceptional students.

Programme content

General Education
This part of the curriculum is compulsory for all students and starts in the first semester. LUC's programme revolves around 4 Global Challenges: Peace & Justice, Sustainability, Prosperity, and Diversity.

Each Global Challenge will be taught in the first year, in order to help you understand interdisciplinary thinking as well as provide a window into each Major.

Academic Skills
All students learn to present and write in Academic English, they work on their quantitative and qualitative research skills, their mathematical skills are also trained.

The Major
In Years 2 and 3, students specialise in one of the following majors:

- Culture, History & Society
Today, globalization makes us all aware of how closely we are connected to, and often dependent upon, the actions of people who are distant from us. Human migration and economic liberalization have confronted local communities with changes happening on a global level. How can we devise ways to share resources and negotiate conflicts? How can we understand the origins and consequences of human difference? How are they defined by race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, or any number of other factors?

- International Justice
Home to the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, The Hague is the perfect backdrop to explore conceptions of justice in our global society. Questions of human rights, peace, security and the environment present legal and policy challenges for governmental and non-governmental actors, international institutions, and civil society that extend beyond national borders and single disciplines.

- Governance, Economics & Development
Wrenching poverty, global inequality, violent political and ethnic strife, deadlocked, unresponsive or even collapsing governments, growing dissatisfaction with democracy and missed opportunities for innovation – these are merely some of the challenges of governance and development with which our programme aims to teach students to critically engage.

- Earth, Energy & Sustainability
At the start of the 20th century there were fewer than 2 billion people. Now at over 7 billion, Earth’s population is on target to reach 8 billion by 2027. How has this dramatic increase in human population impacted Earth’s life support systems and natural resources? How should we understand the meaning of sustainability? How do we achieve a sustainable society?

- World Politics
The World Politics Major at Leiden University College The Hague examines the big ideas and the powerful forces – political, military, economic, social and cultural – that shape the world at every level, from the global to the local and everything in between. Political conflict is a key driver of many of these interactions and this can escalate into wars and insurgencies, but it can also produce better understanding and cooperation.

- Global Public Health
Although the world has made tremendous progress in health, education, sanitation and hygiene, global public health challenges still exist. Disparities in health exist between and within nations as evidenced by inequalities in disease burden, mortality, nutrition and environmental well-being. How does the health of humans, animals and the planet interconnect? How do stress and nutrition influence the occurrence of disease in future generations? And how can we understand the colonial legacies of today’s global health policy and public health interventions?

Capstone Project
You can carry out individual research, or can also do a research internship with for example one of the international institutions in The Hague. Another option is to take part in a Capstone Project group, which is a group working on a larger project under the supervision of a researcher

Progression

The university offers related Masters programmes, taught through English, in the following areas:

Evolution and Conservation Biology;
Industrial Ecology;
Public Administration;
Public International Law;
International Relations and Diplomacy;
Political Science;
Area Studies

Entry Requirements