Courses

Our English taught curriculum for 2024-2025 will be online at the beginning of May.

General information

Before choosing your courses read the following information carefully.

Course load

Utrecht University uses ECTS credits (ECTS: European Credit Transfer System). Almost all courses at the Faculty of Social Sciences are worth 7,5 EC. A full-time student will typically take 30 EC per semester. Each semester is divided into two blocks.

Timeslots

Utrecht University works with timeslots. Timeslots divide the week in different parts to prevent a clash in course times. Per block you should select courses in different timeslots. It is NOT possible to choose courses that are scheduled in the same timeslot. If two timeslots are indicated for one course, that means that the course is scheduled in both timeslots.

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Level

The level of each course is indicated in the course description. Please note that almost all English-taught courses offered at our faculty are at Bachelor level.
Level 1: 1st year Bachelor
Level 2: 2nd year Bachelor
Level 3: 3rd year Bachelor
Level M: Master level

Registration

After you have been accepted as an exchange student we will ask you for your final course selection. This will be done in May (1st semester) or October (2nd semester). Please note that after this registration period changes are no longer possible.

Early Exit Option

Most courses in block 2 have an "early exit" option. This means that you can finish the course before the Christmas-break. This is only possible if you need to return to your home institution for the second semester before the end of our first semester. You will receive 5 ECTS instead of 7,5 ECTS after completing the course (Except for the course Cognitive Neuroscience students, which will only be 3 ECTS).
Please note: housing through Short Stay Solutions can only be rented for a full semester.

Courses at another faculty

For an overview of the courses offered by other faculties of our University, please check the overview at the website of the University wide International Office. It is unfortunately not possible to register for courses which will be taught at the University College Utrecht (UCU) or at the University College Roosevelt (UCR).

Grading system

Grades

The grading system of Dutch universities is based on a number scale of 1 (very poor) to 10 (outstanding). The lowest passing grade is 5.5 (in some departments it might be 6.0). It should be noted that 9’s and 10’s are rarely given.
The Student Counseling Department of the Netherlands America Commission for Educational Exchange (NACEE) uses the following qualitative equivalence for translating grades from the Dutch university grading system to that of the American university system: 8 = A 7 = B 6 = C
Since 9’s and 10’s are rarely given, one could generally consider an 8 to be roughly equivalent to an A at an American institution. Some faculties (e.g. Law) hardly ever award 8’s. In these cases an 8 could be considered to be an A+.

Courses