Dean’s honors course
This course is a selective honors course for students from the Law Colleges, the honors program of the Utrecht University School of Economics, the Utrecht University School of Governance and University College Utrecht.

The purpose of this course is to let you design, develop and implement interdisciplinary projects that have a concrete and direct bearing on society, and to let you experience boundary-crossing learning.
Our society is in need of interdisciplinary problem-solving. Many issues have become so complex that they can no longer be solved in a direct or simple way. These so-called ‘wicked problems’, such as socio-economic inequality, integration of minorities, or the rising costs of the health care system, call for an interdisciplinary approach towards problem-solving, in which economic, legal, governmental and other fields come together. By letting students from the departments of Law, Economics, Governance and University College Utrecht work together on such wicked problems, the Dean’s Honors Course will contribute to public value in our society.

Next to introductory sessions on topical wicked problems, interdisciplinary cooperation and public value, four task groups of four students will be formed. The task groups will be fully interdisciplinary, with one representative of each of the participating departments. In the task group you select a recent and contested public issue that you both research from different disciplinary perspectives and for which you formulate a strategy to create public value related to the public issue at stake.
You will present learnings, findings, and your final interventions during a public exhibition. The so called ‘products’ may have very different shapes: from presenting a report, a plan, an experiment to an exhibition or a short seminar with stakeholders.

Bachelor 1 completed