Impact Challenges are geared towards a wide range of students. You are not required to be a current or past honours student. Some Impact Challenges are open to both bachelor’s and master’s students, while others are only for master’s students. More information on the courses can be found in the Prospectus. 

The most important requirements are that you are motivated and are able to commit to the Impact Challenge for its entire duration. Please be aware participating in an Impact Challenge demands considerable time and effort on top of your regular studies (approximately 10 hours per week).

As a pre-master's student, you can only participate in an Impact Challenge if it allows for bachelor’s students to attend. In case the Impact Challenge is only open to master students, you are not eligible to apply. See the Prospectus for more information. 

No, currently Impact Challenges are only available for students at Leiden University.

No, unfortunately LLP students cannot participate in Impact Challenges. Impact Challenges are small-scale classes which means that the number of places is very limited. LLP is an Honours programme and the Honours Academy aims to provide an equal opportunity for regular master’s students to participate in honours education.

Unfortunately, no. Because you will work in a team and will have in-person meetings with stakeholders, you will need to be present in person.

The Honours Academy aims to offer a chance to follow Impact Challenges to as many students as possible. Therefore, master’s students can only apply for one Impact Challenge and one Master Honours Class per year. Bachelor’s students must choose between participating in an Impact Challenge and attending a Bachelor Honours Class.

Impact Challenges run throughout most of the academic year. Registration opens in late September. Please see the Prospectus for more information.

No, because Impact Challenges are extracurricular classes. As they are not part of your regular study programme, you do not need permission from the Board of Examiners.

You should check the spam folder of the email address you used to submit your application. It is possible that the confirmation email ended up there. If the email is not in there, please send an email to impactchallenges@ha.leidenuniv.nl.

You can write your motivation either in Dutch or in English. Proficiency in the Dutch language is not a requirement to participate in Impact Challenges.

Due to the large number of applications we receive each year, it is not possible to process sizeable motivation letters. Therefore, you are allowed to use a maximum of 1500 characters (including spacing).

We advise you to carefully consider the information you include in your letter. Remember that you should make clear why you wish to participate in an Impact Challenge, what you affinity with the topic is, and what benefit the group will have from your participation, knowledge and/or experiences.

The organisation of the Impact Challenges will take care of your registration for the Challenge in uSis, approximately a week before the start of the course. Therefore, you do not need to register in uSis yourself.

Not all Impact Challenges use Brightspace. If they do, you will get access as soon as your registration in uSis has been processed. Note that we take care of both, your registration in uSis and your access to Brightspace.

We urge you to contact the coordinator of Impact Challenge (for contact details see the Prospectus) as soon as possible and mention the date of and the reason(s) for your absence.

You are allowed to be absent from one session at most as long as you inform the coordinator as soon as possible about the reason of your absence (for example, an overlap in your course schedule).

When you have to be absent from more than one session, the coordinator may decide that you are no longer allowed to participate in the Impact Challenge.

Impact Challenges are highly sought after and timely disenrollment allows for another student on the waiting list to participate.

If you wish to disenroll, we urge you to contact the coordinator of the Impact Challenge (for contact details see the Prospectus) as soon as possible, and inform the central organisation by sending an email to impactchallenges@ha.leidenuniv.nl. Do not forget to mention the reason(s) for your disenrollment.

Upon successful completion of an Impact Challenge, you will receive an Impact Challenge certificate. Your study result will also appear on your diploma as an extracurricular activity.

Impact Challenges are extracurricular courses, which means that these credits do not count as an elective in your regular study programme. However, the grade for the completed Impact Challenge will appear as an extracurricular course on your list of grades.