Planning

Planning: step-by-step

• Step 1: Plan your faculty courses/projects first

  First check which parts of your faculty programme are compulsory and how many credits you are required or want to obtain here (12 or 18 EC). Check when these courses/projects take place and when to register for them. 

  Faculty courses or projects are often less flexible in terms of planning. Plan your faculty courses/projects first as much as possible, and plan the rest of your Honours Programme around this.

  You can find this information on your faculty honours webpage.

• Step 2: Think ahead

  To plan your courses well, it is important to think ahead:

  • Going on exchange? Combining honours with an exchange will increase your study load. It is not possible to follow an interfaculty honours course during an exchange period. Make sure to take this into account if you wish to go on exchange, by planning your honours courses before and after the exchange period.
  • Followed a provisional entry course? If you already obtained 6 credits in your first year as a provisional honours student, these 6 credits count towards your final 30 EC. This means you have to obtain 6 credits less in interfaculty honours courses during year 2 and 3 of your bachelor.

• Step 3: Finalize how many credits (EC) you need to obtain in interfaculty and faculty courses

  If you know how many EC you will (need to) obtain in faculty courses, you can take note of how many EC you have left to obtain in interfaculty courses. Use below as a guideline:

  • Need/want to obtain 12 EC in faculty courses and already obtained 6 EC in year 1 as a provisional honours student? --> Then you have 12 EC left to obtain in interfaculty courses (total: 30 EC).
  • Need/want to obtain 12 EC in faculty courses and did not obtain any EC in year 1 as a provisional honours student? --> Then you have 18 EC left to obtain in interfaculty courses (total: 30 EC).
  • Need/want to obtain 18 EC in faculty courses and already obtained 6 EC in year 1 as a provisional honours student? --> Then you have 6 EC left to obtain in interfaculty courses (total: 30 EC).
  • Need/want to obtain 18 EC in faculty courses and did not obtain any EC in year 1 as a provisional honours student? --> Then you have 12 EC left to obtain in interfaculty courses (total: 30 EC).

• Step 4: Discover the interfaculty course offer

  Have a look at all courses on offer in the next semester
  You can find a most recent overview of all interfaculty honours courses on offer here. 

  Attend the Try Out Class
  The Try Out Class is an event with presentations of all interfaculty honours courses of VU and UvA on offer. It takes place twice a year, in June and December, and you can apply for placement in interfaculty honours courses during the days following the Try Out Class. Read more about this and course registration on our course application page.  

• Step 5: Plan and apply for interfaculty courses

  It’s important to check the scheduling of the interfaculty courses before applying to be placed in them: make sure they fit your schedule and that their schedules do not overlap with those of your other (regular or honours) courses.

  Template: Create your personal course overview
  Struggling with planning all your bachelor and honours courses? You can use this planning template (pptx | Sem 1, 2023-2024) to create your own personal course overview.
  
  Apply for interfaculty honours courses!
  You can apply for placement in interfaculty honours courses twice a year during the days following the Try Out Class. Read more about this and course registration on our course application page.  .  

• Important dates & events during your Honours Programme

  During your Honours Programme there a several important dates & events to keep an eye on. All details will be announced on our website and/or posted on Canvas.
  
  (If you are a 1st year bachelor student orienting on the Honours Programme, please check the Honours Programme Explained page for more details and dates of information sessions.)

  NOVEMBER & JUNE

  • Try Out Class: during this event all honours programme students can orient themself on all interfaculty courses on offer by the UvA and VU, and some AUC courses. The TOC is a fun, entertaining and inspiring event with lively presentations and an information market where you can meet the lecturers. For more information, please visit the Try Out Class page. 
  • Course application: in the days following this event, you can apply for placement in courses of your preference by submitting an online course application on the Course Application page. 

  MAY

  • Graduation: each year in May we celebrate the graduation of VU & UvA honours graduates during the annual Honours Graduation Ceremony. Will you be graduating this year? Then don’t miss it! In March you will recieve a Save the Date, and in May the formal invitation

  COURSE EVALUATIONS

  • At the end of each honours course that you have followed, you are invited to fill out a course evaluation for. Your input and honest feedback helps us to continuously work on improving the quality of the Honours Programme and use your input as input to also support the coordinators. 
  • Filling out a course evaluation also gives you an opportunity to reflect on your work and progress throughout the course. What have you learned? How far have you come? What parts of the course appealed to you? Which elements did not? Being thoughtful about your experience as a course comes to an end can help you make better decisions when selecting courses for a new semester. And we also wish that the course evaluations offer you an opportunity to have your voice heard. 
  • Your input is well appreciated. The more detailed you are in your evaluations about the different segments of a course, the better we can refine the course and that will also support your future fellow Honours students.
  • THANK YOU!

• Questions?

  Do you have a question about your planning? Please contact your Faculty Honours Coordinator.