Honours
Introduction from the Honours Director
Dr. Gerard van der Ree (they/them)
Apart from teaching International Relations at UCU I teach in several honours programmes such as the Young Innovators Programme and Creating Societal Impact. Besides that I have set up a new honours programme at the UU 'honours college' called 'Navigating Insecure Futures', offering courses on building hope, resilience, empathy and care in a rapidly changing world.
Honours at UCU
University College Utrecht is an honours college. We provide a highly selective programme, where students are stimulated to deepen and broaden their curriculum. The options to enrich your programme are plenty.
In a technical sense, University College Utrecht is not an Utrecht University Honours Programme and not every University College Student is an honours student. University rules allow only a section of students as honours students. However, University College Utrecht graduates may apply for an Utrecht University honours certificate, as an addition to their University College diploma, and the fact that we are an honours college stands printed on each University College Utrecht transcript. Moreover, all University College Utrecht students can apply for courses offered by any Bachelors Honours Programme at Utrecht University (whereas students of other Bachelors programmes need to be selected as Honours students first).
Curriculum Enrichment options
Honours activities typically add breadth and depth to the curriculum; they contribute to the student’s personal growth and may have an international character. The honours offer at University College Utrecht is not fixed. Instead, the opportunity to explore different honours activities and further curriculum enrichment options are built in the setup of our educational model. We offer our own enrichment options, but our students can also apply for courses offered by any Bachelors Honours Programme at Utrecht University. Likewise, our students may apply for the Honours Certificate of Utrecht University.
The curriculum enrichment options are a mixed bag of possibilities for expanding one’s own curriculum beyond graduation requirements. Some of these options are courses at University College Utrecht, some at Utrecht University, and some have another form.
The special honours courses at University College Utrecht change regularly, except for the Student-led Honours seminar, which is always on offer. The criteria for enrolment are slightly different for each course; a GPA requirement is possible. The specific requirements can be found in the course planner.