Erasmus agreement
The Faculty of Humanities has Erasmus agreements in all of the fields mentioned above. Exchange students can choose courses from the complete range of study areas within the Humanities. They do not need to limit themselves to the specific study area of the exchange agreement providing they select courses offered by the Faculty. Courses at other faculties are not readily available, as exchange students are registered at one faculty only and are therefore generally limited to courses taught at that faculty. It is sometimes possible for students to take one or two courses at another faculty, but this is difficult and not guaranteed.
Language requirements
Courses at the Faculty of Humanities are mainly taught in Dutch or English.
Students are expected to have sufficient knowledge of the language in which the course is taught. Please view the Language requirements of the Graduate School of Humanities for more information.
A variety of courses
Exchange students can do a variety of Bachelor's courses within the Exchange programme College of Humanities or take Master's courses from one of our cutting-edge Master's programmes organised through the Graduate School of Humanities.
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Bachelor's courses
The BA courses which are available to exchange students are part of the Exchange Programme College of Humanities.
The faculty has six schools which cover the complete range of topics in the field of Humanities. There are courses in the following areas: Art, religion and cultural sciences; Dutch studies; History, archaeology and area studies; Language and literature; Media studies; Philosophy; Modern European languages; courses in target language; and Nederlandse taal, cultuur en geschiedenis; courses in Dutch.
You can find the Exchange programme College of Humanities in the course catalogue (see below).
Be prepared to take interdisciplinary courses
We cannot guarantee placement in the desired courses, nor can we guarantee that students can take a full workload in their field of study. Students wanting to study with us should be interested in, and ready to take interdisciplinary courses and courses outside their major study area within the Faculty of Humanities
Courses taught in one of the Modern European Languages
The Faculty of Humanities offers courses in modern European languages such as Italian, Spanish, Modern Greek, French, and German. If you are proficient in these languages, you can take these courses. Please be aware that Dutch is often used as the language of reference.
The courses are not suitable for language acquisition since Dutch is used as the language of instruction and reference.
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Master's courses
The Graduate School of Humanities provides innovative graduate education. With some of Europe's most cutting edge Master’s programmes, the Graduate School annually attracts ambitious students from across the globe.
If you would like to take courses on Master's level, you must have completed a Bachelor Degree (three years of university) in the specific study area. For Master's courses in English, you also need an official English language test. For more information see the Graduate School of Humanities' page on Application and Admission.
Courses of selective master's
Courses of selective Master's programmes (research Master's and professional Master's) are not open to exchange students.
More information
Information on courses at the Master's level can be found in the course catalogue.
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Academic calendar
The semester is divided into three blocks: 8 weeks, 8 weeks, and 4 weeks. Courses can start at each of these blocks and will run for one or two blocks. The first teaching weeks of blocks 1, 2, 4 and 5 are scheduled free of lectures and tests. Exams are at the end of each block. Students are recommended to take two courses per block.
1st semester - September - January block duration September- October 1 8 weeks November - December 2 8 weeks January 3 4 weeks 2nd semester - February - June February - March 4 8 weeks April - May 5 8 weeks June 6 4 weeks
Workload
A full-time study load is 30 ECTS (European Credits) per semester and 60 ECTS for a full year. The number of credits for each course is listed in the course description.
Students can only take a course for full credit. This means attending all sessions and participating actively in class discussions and presentations. All students are also required to take the final assessment (final exam or final paper depending on the type of assessment of the course).
Learn or improve your Dutch
The INTT (institute for Dutch as a second language) offers courses on various levels to learn or improve Dutch. There is a reduced fee for exchange students.
Please note that the results of the Dutch language course will not appear on the UvA transcript.
'I took a course taught in Dutch only eight weeks after I learned the first word in that language. That was a challenge, but the teacher and the Dutch students helped me out, so it was not that big of a problem at the end.' exchange student from Germany.