The Psychology department offers the possibility to take courses without doing the entire degree programme. Contract students pay per course. You “queue up” to regular students in the bachelor’s programme in Psychology, if the course is not full.

Contract education is only meant for people who want to follow one or a limited number of separate courses in Psychology. This can be, for example, because you are interested in a certain subject or because you want to acquire certain specific knowledge/skills. Or maybe you want to orientate yourself on the bachelor’s programme or you want to follow a course as refresher training.

If you want to pass the entire propaedeutic year (the first year) or even the entire bachelor's degree, it is best to first consult one of our study advisers to discuss the best route. Other forms of enrolment are usually better in that case.

All lectures are in English; tutorials are offered in both Dutch and English. Examinations are in English, with the option for Dutch students to answer in Dutch.

As a contract student, you are allowed to follow the course including the assessment. You may also take part in the resit if this is part of the course. Please note: if you have not passed the course at the end of the academic year and wish to take part again, you will have to register and pay for participation again.

Of course it is not compulsory to take part in the assessment, but you will not receive a certificate either if you have not passed the assessment with success. If you want to follow the course purely out of interest and do not want to take part in the assessment, we advise you to simply look in our course catalogue at the literature used for the course and read it yourself.

If you pass courses as a contract student, you will receive a certificate stating that you have obtained the course in question. If you are going to do the entire bachelor’s programme (within the foreseeable future), you will be granted exemption for the course that you obtained as a contract student. Of course, such a certificate also counts if you have a deficiency in the admission requirements for the master's programme and have obtained a course as a contract student in order to overcome this deficiency.

We can only give diplomas to students who are enrolled at the UvA as regular students in the degree programme.

We warmly welcome contract students, but in case of lack of space, students who follow the entire bachelor’s programme take precedence. That is why we also call contract education “queuing up education”: if there is room, contract students are welcome to join.

There are many subjects for which we do not expect a lack of space; this actually applies to all courses for which there are no entry requirements (or only an entry advice). You can therefore participate in these courses with reasonable certainty. Exceptions are:

• the course Practical training: Psychological communication, which is unfortunately often full (but not always!)
• specialist courses it is more difficult to assess the course in advance. If you register, we will inform you as soon as possible after your application

We want to stimulate that our subject Introductory psychology is followed, that's why we use a special rate for this subject: € 330,-. 
For all other courses the following applies:
The costs depend on the size of the course (how many credits) and the level of specialization. We apply two rates:

• € 100 per ec (course credit) for courses without entry requirements (including courses with an entry advice). For a course of 6 ec, this amounts to €600. 
  There is one exception: the course Practical training: Psychological communication of 3 ec costs €200 per ec and therefore amounts to €600. 
• € 200 per ec for specialist courses (courses with entry requirements). For a course of 6 ec this amounts to €1200. 

Please note: UvA alumni who are members of the Amsterdam University Association (AUV) receive a 10% discount on presentation of their valid AUV pass. 

With your application you give us permission to send an invoice for the costs of the course. Usually this invoice will be sent around the start of a semester or course. It must be paid within 30 days. You will receive the invoice by e-mail. 

Please note: cancellation is no longer possible after registration. You will not receive a refund in case of force majeure, illness, special circumstances or if  you find the course disappointing. 

You need to buy books, syllabi and readers yourself. The VSPA (Association of Students in Psychology in Amsterdam) sells syllabi and books to VSPA members at a reduced price (about 10% discount). A one-year membership is €15, granting you a discount on activities as well (for example: interesting excursions).  You can also go to bookshops like Studystore (on the corner of the Roetersstraat). If you buy a book second hand, make sure you buy the right edition. Please note: You have to buy the costs of the study material such as books, syllabi and readers yourself. The costs are in addition to the costs for the course.

Please refer to Courses (below) for our application form. Please note: application is only possible up to four weeks prior to the start of the course.

Do you have further questions about contract courses?

For questions about the best form of enrolment (contract student, regular student, premaster student, etc.) and course prerequisites, please contact:

Psychology study advisers 

For questions about registration, administration, payment, and other topics, please contact our Education Desk:

Education Desk Psychology

The following courses have no entry requirements:

• Introductory Psychology (6)  
• Brain & Cognition (6)  
• Developmental Psychology (6)  
• Social Psychology (6)  
• Work & Organizational Psychology (6)  
• Clinical Psychology (6)  
• Neuropsychology (6)  
• Behavioural Data Science (3)  
• Practical Training: Psychological communication (3)
• Fundamentals of Psychology (6)

Please note: for students doing the Bachelor of Psychology, a number of courses are linked. These are:

• Introductory psychology and Brain & Cognition
• Social psychologie and Work & Organisational psychology
• Clinical psychology and Neuropsychology

As a contract student you can take these linked courses separately for 6 ec per part. Under the heading registration in the study guide these courses are explained exactly which code to use when registering.
An exception is the course Behavioural Data Science, which is together with another course 6 ec. As a contract student you cannot take this other course. However, you can do BDS separately for 3 ec.

We also offer courses for which you do not need specific knowledge in the field of Psychology, but for which we advise that you have at least 12 ec of prior knowledge of social scientific research methods. By this we mean that you have knowledge of statistics and methodology in Psychology or another social science at (approximately) propaedeutic level. If you are in doubt whether you have this knowledge, please ask one of our study advisers.

You choose the following courses:

• Current Topics: Introduction to Sport and Performance Psychology (6)
• Current Topics: Consciousness: From Theory to the Clinic (6)
• Current Topics: Clinical Developmental and Health Psychology (6)
• Current Topics: Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace (6)
• Current Topics: A Clinical Perspective on Today's Issues (6)
• Current Topics: The Psychology of AI (6)
• Current Topics: Introduction to Cultural Psychology (6)

Have you already taken a lot of Psychology courses? If so, you may also be admitted to our specialisation courses. Of course, it depends on what prior knowledge you already have.

We offer 7 specializations and each specialization offers a course package of 30 ec spread over 4 or 5 courses in the second semester. Usually, we recommend to follow such a specialization package as a whole, because you will then have a carefully composed programme in which all subjects are attuned to each other. For contract students, this does not make sense. If you are interested to follow the whole package, it is better to choose a different form of enrolment. It is also possible to take separate courses from the packages, but it is often the case that you also have to take or have taken other courses from the package because one builds on the other. So, this requires consultation with one of our study advisers.

The prerequisites for courses within the course packages are:

• At least 18 ec about methods ans statistics in the social sciences at university level
• Prerequisites depending on the specialization

Below are the seven specializations that offer a course package of 30 ec.
Once opened the link you can find  under the heading Second Year, more information about the courses in the specialization package.

• Brain & Cognition 
  Prerequisites: first year courses Cognitive psychology and Neuropsychology/Brain & Cognition
• Psychological Methods
  Prerequisites: Scientific and statistical reasoning (9 ec)
• Social Psychology
  Prerequisites: first year course Social Psychology
• Work and Organisational Psychology
  Prerequisites: first year course Work & Organisational psychology
• Clinical Psychology  
  Prerequisites: first and second year courses Clinical Psychology, Developmental psychology, Neuropsychology
  Or: Brain & Cognition passed in 19-20 or earlier, Psychological communication, basic knowledge of psychodiagnostics
• Clinical Developmental Psychology
  Prerequisites: first and second year courses Clinical psychology, Neuropsychology
  Or: Brain & Cognition passed in 19-20 or earlier, Developmental psychology, Psychological communication, basic knowledge of psychodiagnostics
• Clinical Neuropsychology 
  Prerequisites: first and second year courses Cognitive psychology, Neuropsychology
  Or: Brain & Cognition passed in 19-20 or earlier, Psychological communication, basic knowledge of psychodiagnostics

Further explanation of the entry requirements
The entry requirements for specialisation courses are quite high. Above, we always mention the name of a course taught by us that covers the entry requirement. However, an equivalent course can also be fine. For example, if we ask for the course Psychological communication, but you have passed a course titled Conversation skills, please indicate this on the form with which you register. 
If a contract student does not fully meet the entry requirements, we will always show the application to the specialisation coordinator, who can then assess whether you are eligible to follow the course.

In the form you will be asked to send (a) piece(s) of evidence so that it is clear that you meet the entry requirements (18 ec in the field of social scientific research methods + the requirements that apply to the specialization in question). We recommend that you enclose a covering letter to indicate which study advisor you have discussed your plan with.