Your first-year programme
In your first year you lay the foundations for further study, not only at Leiden University College The Hague, but for everything you will do later.
Programme Structure
Programme Structure Leiden University College The Hague
* one of your choice courses in the first year has to be Introduction to Area Studies
General Education
The foundations for the majors are laid in the four Global Challenges courses: Peace, Justice, Sustainability and System Earth. They not only serve to introduce you to the main themes and majors of the program, but they also show the necessity of interdisciplinary approaches to complex problems.
In each course you work on a case, either a region or nation that suffers from a lack of Peace or Justice, or a topic from Sustainability or System Earth. You will study these cases from a variety of angles; determine the main actors and stakeholders, historical background, political or economical situation. This will allow you to gain a more complete picture of the problem and understand the complexity of possible solutions.
Academic skills
While working on the cases in the Global Challenges courses, you are also trained in academic skills, such as finding and evaluating academic literature, reading it critically and using creative thinking skills to come to a solution.
All Global Challenges courses are linked to Academic Skills courses. This means that while you are trained in, for example, ‘Academic English’ to give presentations or write correct references, you will immediately apply this in the Global Challenges course. The assignments you’ll do are graded in both courses: the content in Global Challenges and the form, style in ‘Academic English’. The same applies to ‘Exploring Mathematics’ that is teamed with ‘Justice’ and ‘System Earth’.
All round academic
In your first year at LUC The Hague you will be introduced to academic study in fields you may not have encountered before. As an all round academic you need to have insight into the historical development of academic thinking and academic reasoning. In the ‘Disciplinarity and Beyond’ course you will discover the development of science and academic disciplines.
‘Designing Academic Enquiry’ is a course that introduces you to the world of academic research. Which research methods are available for the various disciplines? How can you select the appropriate method for your own research question?
‘Introduction to Area Studies’ is aimed at increasing your intercultural sensitivity, your awareness of your own cultural background and that of the topic you are studying. It is the foundation course for further study in the Global Citizenship component.
Mathematics
‘Exploring Mathematics’ introduces students to the world of Mathematics, offered at several levels so you can continue where you finished at secondary school. Mathematical skills will be useful in many ways later on in your studies.
Choice
The remaining three courses of your first year are for you to choose: you can start on the major you were planning to do or explore various disciplines before deciding in which direction you would like to continue.