By Klaudia Sobczyk
Nearly half of the AUC class of 2026 majors in Science. The Science students are followed by 27% of majors in Social Sciences, and 25% in Humanities. First-year students, who began their journey at AUC in the 2023/24 academic year, brought AUC much closer to achieving its intended goal: half of the students majoring in Science. However, the emphasis on this particular major prompts questions from the students in the others. Students and professors from the Humanities department, which is the smallest and least integrated with the Sciences, discuss their experiences of studying and teaching at a university located in Science Park.
AUC set a specific goal for itself: for the entire student body to comprise 50% sciences, 30% social sciences, and 20% humanities majors. However, this desired major distribution is not new. The numbers come from the Gemeenschappelijke Regeling document (a cooperation agreement). The document constitutes a decision between institutions to promote their specific common interest; AUC was established as a cooperation of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU).
Major distribution was far from the target composition in the early years of AUC: just a decade ago (2013), less than 35% of students chose sciences as their major. Nevertheless, as expected, the numbers started to rise in the following years.
Liberal Arts with a Focus on Science
AUC’s history dates back to 2009 and it stems from a very particular goal: to promote science. In the words of Dr. Marianne Riphagen, AUC’s Director of Education, AUC was established in order to provide opportunities for ambitious students with an interest in honours programmes. Around the same time, the Netherlands experienced an increased demand for students with university degrees in science and technology areas. Hence, AUC was established as an honours programme with a goal of attracting science-oriented students. In doing so, it distinguished itself from other liberal arts and sciences colleges in the Netherlands, specifically highlighting its foundation in science.
For this reason, Science students at our university enjoy great benefits. Students can choose from 80 courses within their major, of which around 15 are cross-listed with the Social Sciences. As pointed out by Riphagen, due to the location at Science Park, AUC facilitates access to the internships and knowledge institutes. Moreover, since the student body consists of nearly 75% of women, AUC is proud of having many female identifying students graduate with a science major – these students have long been underrepresented in most science and technology programmes. “AUC has made and continues to make important contributions in this regard,” says Riphagen.
Studying Humanities in the Science Park
The particular emphasis on one of the majors raises concerns among students in AUC’s smallest department. Not only is Humanities expected to be the least numerous cohort, constituting only 20% of the student body, the curriculum is already limited compared to the other majors.
Kiki Marinov, a first-year Humanities student, recalls that she didn’t expect a disproportion between majors while applying to the liberal arts and sciences program. “I thought it was pretty even split between all three [majors],” she says. She adds that the science foundation of AUC is not immediately obvious on the website or in the application process.
Marinov points out that course options within her major are relatively few. Even though the number of Social Science and Humanities students in the class of 2026 is comparable, the selection of courses within Social Sciences is much more diverse. “A lot of the courses [in Humanities] are very specific, but since there’s so few of them, you have to pick between a lot of different niches,” says Marinov. For example, in the 2023/24 academic year, students could choose from 23 Humanities courses on the 300 level, compared to the 41 courses in the Social Sciences. All these, combined with the cancellation of (already limited) practical Humanities courses for the first semester of the academic year, is putting limitations on a quarter of the student body.
These are not the only problems that Humanities majors might encounter while studying at AUC. Interdisciplinarity, that is crucial in the liberal arts and science programme, is very limited within Humanities and Sciences.These two majors offer only three courses that are cross listed: Mathematical Logic, Philosophical Logic and Philosophy of Science. Furthermore, Science majors typically find it simpler to select Humanities electives. Prerequisites such as maths and statistics courses often restrict the options available to Humanities majors. At the college which values its foundation in sciences, how can ensure that the Humanities department reaches its own potential? These questions were posed to Dr. Erinç Salor, AUC’s Head of Studies Humanities.
While Salor acknowledges the validity of the issues raised, he emphasises that the focus on sciences at AUC does not directly constrain the Humanities department. He underscores that Humanities holds its own important place within the liberal arts program. As he mentions, the emphasis on the Sciences “doesn’t come into conversation every day when we talk about [the Humanities] curriculum, so we run our Humanities departments as best as we can.” Salor also points out that room for Humanities expansion is limited by the very small-scale nature of AUC, the dorms, the building and the resources available. “It’s not an ideologically motivated decision,” he says. “It’s bound by practicalities.”
Salor points also to the success of Humanities courses that are extremely appealing and popular among Science majors. “That traffic [between majors] is happening,” he says. “And that makes our Humanities programme even more vital, with so many Science majors present.”
However, asked about traffic from the other way around, he admits that it can be limited.
Humanities students may fail to meet maths requirements or skill thresholds that are needed in most Science courses. He admits that this is a topic of conversation, especially in the light of changes that will come to AUC from the 2024/25 academic year. That’s when a new concept – constellations – is expected to be introduced. The constellations will be curriculum pathways centred around global themes, integrating courses from various disciplines. They aim to increase the mobility between majors. The issue of prerequisites and sufficient disciplinary skills is therefore central here. “We’re looking into that actively, it’s going to be one of the things that we’re going to have to address,” Salor says.
Looking Into the Future
AUC is looking to the future with great hopes. According to AUC NEXT, a strategic vision for 2022-2026, the emphasis on sciences will be even more pronounced in the next few years. The document not only upholds its plans in having half of the programme majoring in Science, it also introduces new ideas for strengthening majors’ connections with the science foundation. Future plans encompass not only constellations but also the implementation of a course in algorithmic thinking. As said in the document, this course, followed by all students, will be one of the measures to underscore AUC’s emphasis on science.
Riphagen stresses, however, that AUC’s history and foundation does not imply a hierarchy between different majors. As she says, all majors and the Academic Core are equally important to the education at AUC. “And it is exactly in the intersection between the majors that important learning experiences happen,” she concludes.
The Herring 