The Honours Programme is open to students with a high GPA, who want to get more out of their degree programme. It consists of additional courses with a workload of at least 30 credits, which students pursue during their Bachelor's programme. Five ambitions are central to the Honours education at the IIS: interdisciplinarity, room for experimentation, personal and academic development, academic reflection and focus on contemporary issues.

Next semester, the UvA, VU and AUC co-organise 49 courses for students to choose from. Next to these courses, some bachelor programme's organise their own Honours modules. The programme is a popular choice amongst our students. Yearly, about 1400 students join our courses with great enthusiasm.

Every semester, the IIS honoursteam, lead by Marleen van der Meer and Andrea Manneke, organises the so called Try-out class: a seminar where teachers can pitch their course. "It is very exciting to see a large group of enthusiastic Honours students and teachers together in one room" says van der Meer. "Not only are these students broadening their horizons in the academic world, they also form a new community. We are very proud to play a major role in this."

The Try-out class hosted 200 students and 17 teachers. Next semester, the IIS will host 25 Honourscourses with topics ranging from programming, to citizenship, and from birdwatching to religion.