Honours Programme Faculty of Science

Interfaculty and Faculty Honours Programme

• Interfaculty Courses

  The programme offered to all Honours students (interfaculty courses) consists of a large number of interesting courses you can choose from. An overview can be found on vu.nl/honours.
  
  These interdisciplinary courses are taught mainly in the evening by the best lecturers from VU Amsterdam, University of Amsterdam and Amsterdam University College, as well as guest lecturers from the Netherlands and abroad. The classes are small and you will be expected to give presentations, write papers and make an active contribution to discussions.
  
  Before the start of each semester a Try Out Class is organized. At this event, lecturers will give a short presentation about their course. During the days following the event, early June and December, honours students can apply for placement in their preferred interfaculty courses by submitting a course registration form.

  Find more information on the interfaculty courses here.

• Programme | Earth Sciences and Earth and Economics, Life Sciences or Natural Science and Mathematics

  To obtain the required 12-18 ECTS within the Department of Earth Sciences and Earth and Economics, Life Sciences or Natural Science and Mathematics you have the following three options. 

  Faculty Courses (6 ECTS)	Extension of the regular bachelor internship (6 ECTS)	Star variants (3 ECTS) or Individual Research Modules (6 ECTS)
  Overview of all Faculty courses can be found here.  Instructions on how to apply for Interfaculty courses can be found here.	The objective of this extension is a clear deepening of the material and further development of academic and research skills.  The extension is concluded with a written report and an oral presentation. You can receive a maximum of 6 ECTS on top of the credits for your regular bachelor internship.  Note that the extension takes place in close collaboration with your thesis supervisor, so discuss this as early as possible.	A ‘Star variant’ is aimed at exploring and deepening of a specific topic of the course. You can do this for courses taught in the second and third year of your BSc program, including those of the minors.  In most cases, a short literature study is written, although it is possible to fill it in differently, such as teaching a specific topic, giving a presentation, helping with a poster for a conference, etc. This can only be done in consultation with the lecturer/course coordinator and your HP tutor.  If you are interested in doing a ‘star-variant’ of a particular course you will take, it is important to contact the lecturer/course coordinator of the course in time, at least two weeks before the course starts. Both the lecturer/course coordinator and your HP tutor will need to approve your plans for the ‘star-variant’ of the course. The aim of the Individual Research Module is that you get more experience in conducting research, in addition to the regular course practicals, and also improve your academic skills. You will write a report of the project, and in consultation with the supervisor you will give an oral presentation (for details concerning the application, description of the research plan, and assessment guidelines, see Modules).

• Programme | Computer Science (including Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Information Science)

  If you are a talented and motivated student, the VU Honours Programme offers you the opportunity to invest more in your own area of study and to broaden your horizon. Enroll in the Honours Programme (HP), choose your tracks and topics of deep study, fulfill their requirements, and you will gain knowledge and experience that can change your life.

  What?
  The Information Sciences department has a unique offer: each student can mix and match courses, effectively creating individual tracks of excellence. There are two main types of courses:

  1. Focused on a high quality, scientific research project that is unique for each student.

  2. Focused on learning in the structure of a traditional course.

  Please check the Canvas community Honours Programme CS/AI for more details, templates, and community access. 

  How many courses should you take?
  The general structure of the HP at the VU offers the prestigious HP annotation to their BSc degree, upon completing at least 30 ECs over the regular programme of 180 ECs (extra credits). This means you can tailor your own track to include 30 ECs or more extra credits; if you include more than 30 ECs, you invest in an even deeper study in your HP.

  Which courses can you take?
  Consult the extensive section ‘How to complete the Information Sciences HP?’

  Who can apply, how, and when?
  Are you highly motivated, have good grades (above 7.5 grade point average in the first year), and have passed all your first year courses? Then you can apply for the Honours Programme!

  The application procedure is the same across the entire VU HP, so check the detailed requirements, the application form, and the next application deadline here:

  How to complete the Information Sciences HP?
  Are there any general restrictions about the courses you can take? The general structure of the HP at the VU requires that the 30 ECs must include at least 12 ECs and at most 18 ECs obtained from departmental, and at least 12 ECs and at most 18 ECs obtained from interfaculty courses

  Are there any specific restrictions for the courses I can take?

  Clarification acquisition EC's	Course HP Research Community and Practice (6EC)	Canvas page
  Any student can obtain more than the 30 ECs necessary to get the Honours Programme annotation.  In the following text in this webpage, when we refer to limits we mean the necessary part (lower boundary) and not to the maximal number of credits. For example, a student may want to compose their necessary 30 ECs out of the mandatory course “HP Research Community and Practice” and two research projects as faculty courses (all together 18 ECs in total) and two interfaculty courses (12 ECs in total).  However, the student can also further pursue one more research project and get more credits for them. Here, the student could, next to the mandatory course do 3 research projects.  Then, the student would accumulate 24 ECs as faculty credits, and thus meet and also exceed the 18 planned faculty ECs. The student would still need to meet the limit of 12 interfaculty ECs.	HP students must take the faculty course HP Research Community and Practice (6EC), which focuses on research methods and practice in computer science and artificial intelligence.  The Honours Coordinator will automatically register Honours students for this course. The course is mandatory and must be completed during the first year of participation in the Honours Programme. Second year HP students must take the faculty course HP Research Community and Practice (6EC), which focuses on research methods and practice in computer science and artificial intelligence.  The HP Research Community and Practice course focuses on the research process in the fields of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence - the philosophy, theories, methods, and body of knowledge associated with the scientific method of our field. This course is mandatory. For details about the content of X_HP010, contact the course coordinator, Sara Lusini.	Other faculty courses that Honours students can take, will be listed on the CS Department Honours Canvas page.

  What is in the research-oriented track?
  By the end of these modules, you (the student) will learn the skills and knowledge corresponding to the level of a starting, independent researcher with high potential for further development. It is possible that the successful project will end with a high quality publication in a prestigious scientific venue - this mostly depends on you!

  Within the research track, you will have the choice of pursuing a scientific research project, on one of the possible three variants, of at least 6 / 12 / 18 ECs respectively. This track is not available across faculties.

  Steps for doing a research project

  • Find a topic or supervisor first. If in doubt, please contact us. We can provide you with a list of supervisors or you can approach someone who you would like to work with and ask them if they are willing to supervise you.
  • Both topic supervisor who agrees with an explicit topic
  • Develop the problem statement in collaboration with the supervisor and determine the size in EC’s. The scope of the project can be adjusted at a later stage.
  • Register a short form of the problem statement and EC’s with the HP coordinators.
  • Develop research in collaboration with the supervisor.

  Can I continue a research project beyond the 18 ECs?
  You can. The HP does not limit the maximum number of ECs, it just specifies the mandatory minimum. For example, some of the successful students in the research-oriented track could choose to earn additional credits training for and then attending various conferences and seminars, where they can present their work to the national and international community.

  Will the successful completion of the Honours Programme show on my transcript?
  A student who has met the requirements of the regular Bachelor's programme within the nominal duration of study, who has achieved an average weighted mark of at least 7.5 for all components of the Bachelor's programme (excluded the honours components) and who has also met the requirements of the Honours programme will receive a Bachelor diploma with a transcript indicating that he or she has successfully completed the Honours programme.

  Contact
  For all emails about the Honours Programme, make sure you include the string “[vu] [hp]” in the subject of your email.

  For more information about procedures and administration, contact Susanne Deen. For more information about content, contact Prof.dr.ir. Alexandru Iosup. He may delegate your questions related to the AI tracks to dr. Anil Yaman.

  Community
  The HP has a community on Canvas, to which we invite all students who have been accepted for the programme.

• Application and Contact

  You can apply for the FS Honours Programme via the VU Honours website. You are eligible for the programme if you have the motivation to take extra courses in the second and third year of your bachelor programme and passed all your first-year bachelor courses, with a grade average of 7.5. Please notice that Honours is a selective program for which the department you are studying in has the right to make a qualitative selection.

  For general questions about the Honours Programme or questions concerning interfaculty courses, please send an e-mail to honours@vu.nl.

  Yvette Schipper is Honours Coordinator for the Faculty of Science. If you have any questions about the faculty programme of the Honours Programme, you can contact hervia e-mail (honourscommittee.sciences@vu.nl). Please note that for questions related to Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, you can best contact Susanne Deen (s.j.deen@vu.nl).

• FAQ's

  For the FAQ's about the Honours Programme click here.