The Bachelor Honours programme is a challenging opportunity for well-performing students who can and would like to do more next to their studies. Within our selection procedure, taking place in January of each year, we consider both your motivation and study results/achievements. Excellent grades do, therefore, not always lead to immediate admission, as we expect a lot of input from students to get everything out of the programme. Nonetheless, we check your study progress to ensure a nominal study progress whilst participating in the Bachelor Honours programme. Hence, there are minimum requirements that students must meet if they want to take part in the programme, described below.
Requirements
To participate in the Bachelor Honours programme, you need to perform well in your Bachelor study. At the start of the Honours programme, you need to have successfully completed all your modules until the moment of application (nominal study progress), unless you are able to show that you have legitimate reasons for not meeting this requirement (like activism, illness, etc.). Besides that, you need to have a considerable amount of free time besides your regular studies to follow the programme (we recommend having at least 12 hours an week to follow lectures and complete assignments).
Students will only be admitted to the Bachelor Honours programme if:
- You are a first or second-year student and have been admitted to one or more UT Bachelor programme(s);
- You have a nominal study progress for the UT-Bachelor programme(s) you are enrolled in at the moment of application;
- You belong to the top 10% of their study cohort (for most studies, this means an average grade of 7.5 or higher);
- Your motivation letter and interview show that you are talented, ambitious and motivated;
- Your motivation letter and interview show that you have the potential to complete the Honours programme within the designated period.
In the summer holiday (after 2 quartiles), the admitted Honours students will be screened again for their study progress to ensure that you are able to keep a good study progress. They are allowed to continue participating in the Bachelor Honours programme if they have:
- Nominal study progress for the UT-Bachelor programme(s) they follow at the moment of screening;
- Successfully finished all the Honours modules they have participated in.
In exceptional cases, the Honours Dean may deviate from any of these requirements on an individual basis.
Application & Selection
If you are motivated to participate in the Honours programme and if you have achieved good course results so far, you can apply for the Honours programme between mid-December to the beginning of January each year (please sign up for our mailing list to be kept up-to-date with our specific application deadlines each year). For the application, you have to submit a motivation letter. The motivation letter should discuss the following questions:
- What are your passions and talents?
- What extracurricular activities have you participated in?
- How do you want to develop as a person, and how might the Honours programme help you?
- What is your definition of Honours?
- Which tracks did you choose (first and, if relevant, second preferred choice), and why did you choose these tracks?
When writing your letter, please consider the following:
- The letter should consist of 500-750 words.
- The letter has to be a PDF.
- The letter should have your student number as the file name (e.g. s1234567).
The motivation letter, alongside the Study Progress Overview you will have to submit during your application, serves as input for an admission interview with a teacher of your first choice track. In the interview, your motivation for applying and your motivation for your first (and, if relevent other) preferred track(s) is discussed. This interview will be planned when applying for the Honours programme. After the interview, you will be notified of the final admission decision before the start of the third quartile. Before the start of the programme, the Honours Association Ockham will organise an introduction activity to the entire new cohort. Accepted students will be invited to this session.