MSc Honours Programme
The MSc Honours Programme is uniquely designed for ambitious first year master’s students who want and are able to go the extra mile. This extracurricular programme amounts to 15 credits on top of your regular master programme. Are you up for an extra challenge? Eager to get the best out of your study and yourself? Feel like working in a team? Then the MSc Honours Programme might be just the right thing for you.
Why join the MSc Honours Programme?
The MSc Honours Programme gives you the opportunity to further develop your talents and interests within and outside your study domain. This is an environment where you are encouraged to experiment with new ideas and ultimately collaborate across cultural, professional, and personal boundaries. An important aim of the MSc Honours Programme is to support students in their endeavor to engage in positive academic, professional, personal and societal impact. The leadership track forms the basis of a strong honours community in which together we explore the broad concept of leadership and the art of living. There is one Master Honours Programme for the entire university.
How is the programme structured?
The honours programme lasts 15 months from the last weekend of September 2024 (mandatory kick-off weekend) until December 2025. The 15 credits are divided into 8 credits working on an interdisciplinary research project (HIP), which fits within the life sciences investment & research themes from WUR and is supervised by scientists from both Wageningen University and Wageningen Research.
This gives you the unique opportunity to look behind the scenes of the research that takes place at our university and research institutes, and to contribute to it; 5 credits are awarded for the art of living, the leadership labs, and a free choice to follow workshops such as visual design thinking, creative writing, spoken word, and/or participation in an (international) Summer Schools; 2 credits go to 'emerging issues'. Together we define issues that we want to explore. To this end, we invite guest speakers, organize excursions and collaborate with relevant expert and societal organizations.
After completing the honours programme you will receive an honours certificate together with your MSc diploma.
Kick-off Honours Introduction weekend
To start the programme adventurously, you will go on a weekend trip to Friesland. Through team building activities with your peers you get to know each other better. This is where the kick-off of your Honours Impact Project begins and where you work on a collective assignment. This is a mandatory event for all honours students and will take place from Friday, September 27, 5 p.m. to Sunday, September 29, 5 p.m.
Art of Living
Socrates said it already ages ago: “Know yourself”.
Who am I and how do I want to contribute to the world in a good way? Art of Living is about the question: how do I want to live, what are my values and what inspires me? As student in the here and now, as professional in the future and also as citizen in this world. In the Honours programme we stimulate you to think about your personal learning question (s) and development. We do this together in groups and individual.
Knowing yourself and reflecting on your inner thoughts and feelings but also on daily life helps to make better decisions and to gain more insight in your own actions, communication and relationships with others. By exchanging experiences with fellow students, you learn to investigate and formulate your own motives, to help each other and you learn from the stories of others.
Art of living is a compulsory track with meetings, workshops and InterVision groups during the Honours year.
Leadership Lab
In the honours programme there is room for the students’ own input and that certainly applies to the leadership lab. The leadership lab is a monthly meeting with all students to explore the theme of leadership in a broad context. Each meeting is organized by a small group of students for the whole group. The what and the how is free as long it has a link with leadership. It is challenging and motivates to create your own lesson.
The whole student group sees each other every month at the leadership lab next to the smaller HIP and the Art of Living groups. This means there can be build a strong community which makes it possible to experiment and challenge yourself in a safe environment. The international and multidisciplinary composition of the group is an interesting experience to cross boundaries.
Honours Impact Projects
If you are curious about what an Honours Impact Project consists of, you will find that no two projects look alike. Working in interdisciplinary groups, you are able to tailor your project to any range of topics and methods that spark your collective interest.
It is the perfect opportunity to bring your knowledge, passions and skills to the table and working on an interdisciplinary research project (HIP), which fits within the life sciences investment & research themes from WUR and is supervised by scientists from both Wageningen University and Wageningen Research. This gives you the unique opportunity to look behind the scenes of the research that takes place at our university and research institutes, and to contribute to it.
Emerging issues
The Strategic Agenda 2022-2025 of Wageningen University states: “our ambition is to increase our contribution to finding and realizing solutions for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations within the Wageningen domain: contributing to ending hunger, ensuring food security and sustainable agriculture, climate change mitigation, protection of biodiversity and sustainable use of ecosystems on land and at sea.”
Together we define issues that we want to explore. To this end, we invite guest speakers, organize excursions and collaborate with relevant experts and societal organizations to contribute to the goals of the Sustainable Development Goals.