Proposed minors for the 2027–2028 academic year
In recent months, we have been working hard to develop the faculty minors we will offer as of the 2027-2028 academic year. In that year, for the first time, the elective courses for regular bachelor's students at our faculty will be fully concentrated in the fifth semester.
This has led to a broad range of minors that has been established across the whole faculty and reflects the joint efforts of our institutes and departments. A total of eleven minors have been proposed on topical, social and scientific themes, including democracy, human rights, technology, migration, economics and truth-finding. In developing this offering, a conscious choice was made for a broad representation of different areas of law and perspectives on law. In addition, the language of instruction was taken into account so that the offering is also accessible to English-speaking (exchange) students. We also considered the location where the minors will be offered – in Leiden or The Hague.
A thorough and careful process
First, the Working Group on Elective Education developed the frameworks for the faculty’s minors offering. Next, the perspectives, wishes and priorities of the institutes were identified through discussions with the academic directors. A working group of programme directors from the bachelor's programmes involved then considered this input and developed advice from the programme perspective. On the basis of this advice, the academic directors determined the proposed offering. Throughout this process, we have explicitly looked not only at the perspective of the individual programmes, but also at opportunities for synergy between institutes and alignment with the faculty’s and the university’s overall profile.
And now?
In the coming months, the minors will be developed in more detail at the course level and will be submitted to the Faculty Board for its approval. The university-wide minors committee will then assess the offering in relation to the existing university offering.
Renewing our range of minors means making changes: some existing minors will disappear, while new minors will be introduced. With this new offering, the faculty will soon have a high-quality, future-proof range of minors that will attract both our own students and students from other faculties. As soon as the minors offering has been finalised, the courses on offer to exchange students can also be decided. This will partly consist of certain English-language courses within the minors in the first semester and partly of courses that are (also) offered to exchange students in the second semester.