Learning to view societal issues in a global context. Knowing how to make an impact based on the sustainable development goals. You might expect this to be too far-fetched for the average third-year bachelor student. But it's not, as is evident from the interest in the Leiden-Delft-Erasmus minors.
In these joint minors, now 17, disciplines are combined to provide solutions to major societal issues. Marja Verstelle, as program manager in charge of boosting the joint education explains enthusiastically:
'The students, from different fields of study, go to the locations in Leiden, Delft and Rotterdam during the semester. That is already a step outside their familiar surroundings. But especially the content creates that broader world view. Minors such as African Dynamics, Responsible Innovation and Dynamics of a Healthy Society are great examples.'
The content of the minors create that broader world view.'
New minors
This year, two new minors will be introduced into the Leiden-Delft-Erasmus program: SDG-based Entrepreneurship and Future Challenges Lab: Co-creating sustainable practices in and beyond the Indonesian City. SDG-based Entrepreneurship, an initiative of the Rotterdam School of Management, is about how businesses can make a positive impact on society. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are used as a framework in the cases the students will work on in groups.
Who brings what expertise?
Camilo Benitez Avila is one of the lecturers in the minor SDG-based Entrepreneurship. From TU Delft's Faculty of Technology, Governance and Management, he worked with colleagues from Rotterdam and Leiden in recent years to develop the minor. Who brings what expertise from the three cooperating universities?
Benitez Avila: 'Rotterdam is of course strong in economics, but also in impact-driven business management and entrepreneurship. In Delft we are good at systems thinking, giving insight into how problems arise, through interaction of which factors. Leiden provides knowledge on governance and legislation but also, for example, on environmental impacts.'
Students from the three LDE universities and Indonesia are participating: this is how we bring different worlds into contact with each other.'
Knowledge exchange
The LDE minor Future Challenges Lab deals with the current case of moving the Indonesian capital to Borneo. Leiden-Delft-Erasmus dean Wim van den Doel has laid the groundwork for a knowledge exchange in recent years, and this minor is a result of that. In the hands of Bart Barendregt, professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences in Leiden, the minor has taken further shape in close cooperation with the Institute for Social Studies in The Hague.
Of particular note is that the place of employment is Jakarta. Barendregt: 'The entire minor is coordinated from Indonesia for three months. Students from the three LDE universities and Indonesia are participating. This is how we bring different worlds into contact with each other.'
This way they develop into the change agents of our sustainable future.’
Change agents
Verstelle: 'With minors we can respond relatively quickly to what is going on in the world, and of course we build on the scientific basis. We have something very powerful in our hands as Leiden-Delft-Erasmus. Three top universities that are complementary to each other. Students learn to look at a case in very different ways, and learn interdisciplinary cooperation. This way they develop into the change agents of our sustainable future.'
