Leiden University College in The Hague celebrates its fifth anniversary
Leiden University College The Hague (LUC) is celebrating its fifth anniversary. This English-language programme with on-campus teaching for excellent students has proved to be a great success. On Saturday 10 October, the LUC will be celebrating in Diligentia Theatre in The Hague with numerous speakers, including Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.
Maturity
LUC-students on the stairs of the Anna van Buerenplein 301
With its fifth anniversary, the Leiden University College The Hague (LUC) has reached maturity. The LUC has moved into its own building, and the first graduates have been sent out into the world. Leiden University College is a multicultural community: 600 students from dozens of countries living together and following an intensive curriculum. The programme has proved to be a great success: only five per cent of students drop out and more than two-thirds graduate within three years.
English-language bachelor's programme
Leiden University College The Hague (LUC) offers a three-year English-language Bachelor’s programme in Liberal Arts & Sciences: Global Challenges for excellent and motivated Dutch and international students. The residential college in the capital city offers students a combination of teaching, housing and social activities. The LUC prepares students for leading positions in a global society. Global Challenges, the ULC’s broad interdisciplinary programme, focuses on peace, international law and sustainability.
Critical world citizens
LUC Dean Professor Jos Schaeken: ‘We teach our students to become critical world citizens. This implies sensitivity to other cultures and a tolerant, broad perspective. Our students are not locked up in their ivory education and housing tower. They go into town: they teach in the Schilderswijk, they look at the city critically – what is the urban design, why is it the way it is, and what are the stories behind it? – or they measure the level of pollution on the Scheveningen beach.’
Labour market
‘Many LUC graduates go on to follow a research master’s programme or a couple of master’s programmes,’ says Schaeken. ‘First a general master’s that suits their graduation profile and then a more specialised one. The relatively small group of graduates who are already employed have found jobs in primarily three sectors: non-government organisations, the diplomatic service and the creative industry.’
Honours education with a high rating
The programme in Liberal Arts & Sciences: Global Challenges is part of the Honours education Leiden University offers to motivated excellent students. There are entry requirements based on grades and motivation. In the 2015 Elsevier survey on Dutch higher education, Leiden University College scored second, and according to the 2015 Catalogue of Dutch Universities, the LUC offers a Top Rated Programme.
Feest in Diligentia
Leiden University College (LUC) is celebrating its fifth anniversary at the very location where it was ‘born’: the Diligentia Theatre on the Lange Voorhout in The Hague. On Saturday 10 October, a ceremony will take place from 14.30 to 16.30 hrs., which staff and students are invited to take part in, and which will include speeches by the programme’s early supporters. These include Jozias van Aartsen, Mayor of The Hague, Professor Simone Buitendijk, Vice-Rector Magnificus of Leiden University, and Professor Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Professor of Peace, Justice and Security at the Campus The Hague Faculty.