Honours programme in Philosophy: ‘We are going to an Istanbul university, to see what we can learn from Eastern philosophy.’

It was busy at the Faculty Club: many students from the Honours College and the Leiden Leadership Programme (LLP) were present. If only to show their fan club potential and clap really hard for the one or two students who talked about their particular programme.

The presentations were very diverse. The student from the Archaeology Honours programme, for instance, gave a rather critical speech about the Municipal Department of Archaeology/Building History where a number of students did a traineeship. But she also talked about the various improvement plans for the near future. The History representative explained that throughout history the rise of great powers has often been swift, and is generally not perceived until their supremacy is already an established fact.

Leiden Leadership Programme: 'First you had alphabet books, now you have social media. We are investigating a third form of communication: showing others appreciation.’

Many presentations made the added value of the excellence programme abundantly clear: the fact that students from different programmes come together and that the participants are able to do more than in the ‘regular’ programmes. For instance in terms of research. And it is so inspiring. ‘I can’t praise it enough’, said the Linguistics representative. The Honours College is clearly an enormous pleasure for the students.

Mayor Lenferink came to meet the Leiden talents, and to give a speech. About the Leiden Leadership Programme he said: ‘New leaders are indeed needed because the current ones are failing. As a result we are losing the competition with the East and the political world is fragmenting. You must all do your best, so that we can enjoy our pension in peace.’

The new Dean and the former Dean: Simone Buitendijk (l) and Rietje van Dam

Simone Buitendijk, Vice-Rector of the Executive Board since September 2011, is the new Dean: ‘As far as I am concerned, the Honours programme is a very important component of the education we offer. The Executive Board has named it as one of their focal points for the next few years. This also fits in with the Strategic Agenda for Higher Education of State Secretary Halbe Zijlstra, which included among other things the goal of having 10% of students participating in excellence programmes within a few years.’

This still requires some missionary zeal. Rietje van Dam, Buitendijk’s predecessor in the functions of Vice-Rector and Dean, noticed that students often fail to consider themselves as candidates for an honours programme. ‘Nonsense, all this false modesty.’