Honours colleges and programmes

Utrecht University encourages students to develop their talents to the best of their abilities. Additional incentive teaching programmes have been created for the most talented and motivated students. Students who wish to participate, must meet stringent admission criteria.

Honours colleges

Utrecht University offers three honours undergraduate programmes of a high academic standard in English: University College Utrecht, University College Roosevelt and Utrecht Law College. These honours colleges are characterised by small-scale teaching, allowing for intellectual growth through intensive interaction. To be admitted to the three honours colleges, students have to go through a selection procedure; marks, motivation and commitment being important criteria. More information about honours colleges (in Dutch).

University College Utrecht and University College Roosevelt
Both the University College Utrecht and the University College Roosevelt offer English-taught Liberal Arts & Sciences undergraduate programmes. The students, who follow a personal programme and live on campus, largely come from abroad. University College Utrecht was the first University College in the Netherlands. The University College Roosevelt was founded by Utrecht University and Hogeschool Zeeland, and is located in Middelburg.

University College Utrecht has been awarded the ‘special quality’ designation by the Accreditation Organisation of The Netherlands and Flanders (Nederlands Vlaamse Accreditatie Organisatie, NVAO) for two aspects of its teaching: the high success rates and the achieved teaching level. Furthermore, a combined review panel of the American Higher Learning Commission and the Quality Assurance Netherlands Universities (QANU) in 2007 rated the teaching level and success rates of University College Utrecht as ‘excellent’.

Utrecht Law College (in Dutch)
Every year, a select group of students is offered the opportunity to take part in the Utrecht Law College (ULC). The ULC is a prestigious honours college within the regular undergraduate programme of the School of Law, tailored to the levels and personal interests of the students. The ULC programme is characterised by careful guidance on selecting the right subjects and by a practice-oriented approach. The ULC has a fixed team of experienced teachers, who together with the students make up a close-knit community.

Honours programmes

All faculties offer honours programmes. Honours programmes are intended for undergraduate students who wish to further develop and broaden their knowledge and skills, and are taken in addition to the regular programmes. The programme content may vary per faculty. Admission is based on stringent selection criteria including marks, motivation and commitment.

Honours programme: Young Leaders League

Utrecht University offers a selective, interdisciplinary Young Leaders League for top talent in the master phase focused on leadership, entrepreneurship and ethical and moral education. Leaders of the future are highly trained professionals with vision, drive, creativity and initiative who are able to assess complex situations and calculated risk taking. They are enthusiastic motivators and are flexible.

More information

Twin programme

Science students may opt for a twin programme. Twin programmes consist of a combination of two undergraduate programmes. Students may for example combine Physics & Astronomy with Mathematics, or Mathematics with Information & Computing Sciences. Twin programmes are comprised of the compulsory subjects of both programmes. As the subjects of the individual programmes are scheduled in order to be complementary to each other, twin programmes can be taken in three years.