University College Utrecht:
University College Utrecht (UCU) is the international honors college of Utrecht University (Shanghai ranking: best Dutch university) in the Netherlands. UCU specializes in liberal arts and sciences undergraduate education, and students choose from 200 different courses in humanities, science and social sciences leading to a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science honors degree.
Utrecht University College offers a range of Bachelor of Arts / Bachelor of Science honours degree programs in:
Science (BSc) including:
- Mathematics
- Biology
- Chemistry
- Earth & Environment
- Biotechnology
- Pharmacology
- Human & Animal Physiology
Social Science (BA) including:
- Geography
- Socio-Economic History
- Law, Society & Justice
- World History
- Economics
- Political Theory
- Psychology
- International Relations
- Political Science
and many more....
Humanities (BA) including:
- History
- Philosophy
- Performing Arts
- Literature
- Religion
and many more....
Bachelor program in Liberal Arts & Sciences
A UCU education is characterized by its broad and interdisciplinary nature. As a student, therefore, you design your own curriculum. This means that the curriculum does not have a fixed structure; instead you combine different courses to assemble a personal study program. The full three year program has six semesters of four courses each, so by the end your curriculum consists of at least 24 courses (180 ECTS). Once you’ve completed the program a Bachelor of Arts (BA) or a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree is issued.
During the first year you explore the academic world and the various academic disciplines. You take general academic skills courses that help develop writing, presentation and methodological skills, and you start learning a foreign language. You take courses at the introductory 100-level in at least two of the three departments - Science, Social Science and Humanities. By the end of your UCU program you must have taken at least one course in all departments.
The second - or junior - year is aimed at expanding knowledge and skills. Before the start of this year you declare a major in one of the three departments, or possibly an interdepartmental major. You take courses at the intermediate 200- and advanced 300-level.
During the third - or senior - year efforts are focused on finalizing the program by gaining sufficient disciplinary knowledge to apply for a Master’s program or a job. This culminates in the research thesis, a sizeable academic paper on a topic of your own choice.