Leiden Law School

At Leiden Law School of Leiden University, it is possible to take certain courses on a contract basis. As contract student, you will join the regular students in the classroom. After passing the exam, you will be awarded a course certificate.

How to enroll

Decide which course you would like to follow. Information on courses is available in the Prospectus. Make sure you select the correct academic year at the top of the screen and tick the box on the left-hand side to select contract courses.

In principle, you are not allowed to follow first-year courses or master’s courses through contract education.
Contact the Course Coordinator to receive their permission to take the course. You can find their email address in the Prospectus. Please note: permission from the Course Coordinator does not automatically mean that you will be granted approval to follow this course. This is also dependent on potential admission requirements for the course and the evaluation of your enrollment request.
Enroll for the course you would like to follow by filling in the enrollment form.
You will need to include the permission of admission from the Course Coordinator when you fill in this form or your request for enrollment will not be processed.
Enter the catalogue number of the course you have chosen on the enrolment form. You can find this number in the Prospectus.
If you wish to follow multiple courses, you will need to fill in the enrollment form for each course separately.
With the catalogue number, you can also find the timetables for lectures, workgroups, or exams.
The OIC will process your enrollment form and evaluate your information and previous study history due to potential admission requirements for the course.
The OIC will send a confirmation and will take care of the registration for education and exams once the participant has given their final agreement.

Conditions for participation

Approval of admission from the Course Coordinator is required.
Courses that have certain conditions (e.g. an internship is required, or because of limited group size only regular law students of Leiden University are admitted to a particular major), are not available as a contract course.
Your application may also be rejected because for some courses, a certain level of prior knowledge is expected and is given as a condition for admission.
If you do not have this knowledge, you are required to first take the relevant courses to gain this knowledge. Additionally, if you believe to meet the requirements in some other way, you can mention this on the enrollment form.
If you have any doubts about whether your knowledge is sufficient, we advise that you contact a Study adviser (in that case, please let them know that you want to follow the course as a contract student).
Contract students are subject to the same requirements for participation as other students, such as preparing for lectures, writing papers and giving presentations.
Please note that it is not possible to take exams in one or more elective courses in order to complete a program you have taken or intend to take. An exemption based on a contract teaching certificate will not be given, unless in special cases the examination board decides otherwise.

Procedure after enrollment

Confirmation/invoice

Once we have received and registered your enrollment, it is considered binding. You will receive an e-mail confirmation of your enrollment as soon as possible, as well as the invoice. If possible, you will receive the invoice before the start of the course.

Registration for education and exams

The OIC will take care of registration for education and exams. You will receive confirmation of this.

U-account

You will be enrolled at Leiden University as a non-regular student. The Student Affairs Front Office will send you your ULCN-account and password, which you can use to log in to i.a. Brightspace and other services. Have you not received your ULCN-account? Please contact the Front Office of Student Affairs.

Once your enrollment has been finalized, you should request your personal LU-card. Your LU-card is your personal university ID and can be used for multiple purposes. It is mandatory to:

Bring your LU-card and a valid ID to (resit) exams.
Bring your LU-card if you want to enter university buildings and libraries.

You can find the IT facilities here.

Instruction material

You are expected to purchase course-related readers, syllabi and books yourself. The syllabi usually include course information (required literature/topics for exam). Syllabi are available via Readeronline and you can place your order using your ULCN account via the login screen (top right "login").

Brightspace

Courses are supported by the digital learning platform Brightspace. It provides course information, topics for the exam, etc. You will have access to Brightspace once you have been registered by the OIC for education and exams.

Teaching and exam period

Our education is given in semesters, and is concluded with an exam period. Resit exams usually take place at the end of the next block.

Receiving the course certificate

Once you have successfully passed the exam (take into account that the lecturer has 15 days to grade the exam) and your payment has been finalized, you will receive the course certificate from the OIC. The certificate will state the grade you have received for the exam as well as the number of ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) credits, which will show as EC.

Course fee

The course fee is calculated using the number of ECTS credits for a course. The course information in the Prospectus states the number of EC credits. The course fee is €150 for each EC credit (free of VAT). This includes the exam and (if necessary) the resit in the same academic year, and excludes any study materials to be purchased (e.g. syllabi and required literature).

The alumni discount does not apply to contract courses.

Contact

The Education Information Centre (OIC in Dutch) of Leiden Law School is the administrative point of contact for the process of your enrollment, the invoice, and the dispatch of your certificate if you pass the exam. If you have any questions, please contact the OIC via OIC@law.leidenuniv.nl.

Please note, the OIC is unable to answer any questions related to the actual content of a course and/or general information related to education of the course. For these questions, you can contact the department of said course. You can find their information and contact details on the course page in the Prospectus.

Cancellation

If you decide to cancel your enrolment, you are required to notify us via email at OIC@law.leidenuniv.nl. We will use the date we received your notification as the date of cancellation. You are responsible for ensuring that your cancellation is received, therefore, always request a confirmation that we have received your email.

If you cancel:

up to 8 weeks before the start of the course, 75 euros in administration costs will be charged.
between 4 to 8 weeks before the start of the course, 10% of the course fee will be charged.
between 4 to 2 weeks before the start of the course, 50% of the course fee will be charged.
2 weeks or less before the start of the course, the full course fee will be charged.

Studying law in general

If you are interested in one of the studies of the law faculty in general, please see the faculty website. You can find more information regarding admission requirements, deadlines and enrollment procedures.