A minor is a related package of courses. Most minors are worth 30 EC, while some are also available in a smaller variant worth 15 EC. This makes it possible for students to take minors within the elective credits available to them. A minor gives students the opportunity to develop beyond the boundaries of their own study programme. It enables them to broaden their knowledge by following a coherent curriculum in a different discipline. This could be a monodisciplinary minor from another discipline or an interdisciplinary minor that has no overlap with a bachelor’s programme. Students can take a minor not only in Leiden but also in Delft or Rotterdam. All the minors offered by Leiden University, TU Delft and Erasmus University Rotterdam (LDE) can be found on one website: https://eduxchange.nl/.

Students may also use their elective credits in a different way. The options available to them are specified in the study programme’s Course and Examination Regulations (OER). Examples include a research (or other) internship, elective courses or a minor at an institution abroad, or compiling their own package of separate elective courses. In these cases, the Board of Examiners of the student’s own study programme will have to give permission. Students can look on the study programme page in the Prospectus to see what elective courses are offered for their study programme.

The Guidelines for Elective Credits and Minors describe how faculties should structure elective credits and minors, and the procedure by which students select and apply for a minor. The Guidelines are legally part of the Course and Examination Regulations (OER) for bachelor’s programmes at Leiden University.