New Faculty of Humanities to have seven institutes
On 1 September the Faculty of Humanities will be a fact. The former faculties of Religious Studies, Arts, Creative and Performing Arts and Philosophy will together form one new faculty. The Board of Governors approved the formation of the new faculty on 14 July; the decision became effective on 15 July and the Executive Board appointed Professor Wim van den Doel as dean and Professor Arie Verhagen as vice-dean; Ms Eva Kooijmans (Art History student) will be the student member of the Faculty Board. The Graduate School for Humanities, in which all the research will be centred, will comprise seven institutes.
The Faculty of Humanities will start officially on 1 September, with the celebrations for the inauguration of the new faculty being held on Tuesday 23 September. The new board is authorised to act with effect from 1 September in order to allow the new faculty to make a good start.
Image: Master's students carrying out research at the National Archive.
Graduate School
The research carried out by staff of the master's programmes will be centred in the Graduate School for Humanities. All academic staff will be employed by one of the seven institutes of the graduate school, which is headed by dean Van den Doel. The school will provide the teaching staff for the master's and bachelor's programmes. This combination of tasks will guarantee a strong bond between teaching and research within the study programmes. This will allow both the faculty and the University to present a strong international profile within the higher education and research market.
The seven research institutes are:
- Institute for Area Studies (regional studies of Asia and the Middle East)
- Academy for Creative and Performing Arts (previously the Faculty of Creative and Performing Arts)
- Institute for Cultural Disciplines (literature, literary studies, film and media studies, art history)
- Institute for History (history)
- Institute for Linguistics (linguistics)
- Institute for Philosophy (previously the Faculty of Philosophy)
- Institute for Religious Studies (previously the Faculty of Religious Studies)
Image: Professor Wim van den Doel, dean.
Image: Professor Arie Verhagen, vice-dean.
Bachelor's programmes
Vice-dean Verhagen will be responsible for the bachelor's programmes. The main change in the range of bachelor's programmes offered is that for many programmes future students will have a broader entry. They can also opt for a broader, largely general first-year (propaedeuse). These broad first-year programmes will be available in fields such as Asian Studies and languages and culures of the ancient and modern Middle East. In addition, new BA programmes will be developed in the field of communication studies and cultural studies. After the first year, students will also be free within the chosen specialisations to put together other combinations of studies than are currently possible.
Master's programmes
The faculty will also develop new interdisciplinary programmes and programmes which are more oriented towards the employment market with a view to offering master's students a broader range of options. The faculty will continue to offer programmes in the languages, cultures and histories of the all areas of the world.
New house style
The establishment of the new faculty, will also involve a change in the house style of Leiden University. In the house style, each faculty has its own colour. The colour of the new Faculty of Humanities is light green, pms 398. Pms refers to the Pantone matching system, an internationally recognised system of indicating colours.