How do you involve a local community to tackle biodiversity loss? How do you create both awareness and political movement on climate change issues? And how do you find a balance between environmental impacts and economic needs when it comes to pollution from industry?
These are examples of questions that arise in this era of unprecedented environmental change. These changes are driven by an increase in our population and prosperity, resulting in loss of biodiversity, climate change, overuse of freshwater resources, fertile topsoil, and more. All of these are affecting fundamental ecosystem processes, causing change, spanning from local to global scales. Importantly, these challenges do not unfold uniformly across humanity, resulting in glaring injustices in the disproportionate impact of environmental issues, with vulnerable communities and low-income nations bearing the brunt of the most severe consequences. These challenges defy simple solutions coming from a single academic discipline. In the interdisciplinary bachelor Science for Sustainable Societies you will therefore learn to combine natural and social science insights and methods, to help you understand and address complex sustainability challenges.
dr. Thijs Bosker
Programme director and Associate
Professor in Environmental Sciences
'In our programme, students learn how to combine and integrate different knowledge, skills, and methods from both the natural and social sciences. This interdisciplinary approach to sustainability challenges is crucial to fully understand these complex problems. We critically evaluate topics and discuss important challenges. We don’t just do this in the classroom, but also by a hands-on approach. You will go on excursions, do fieldwork, participate in a sustainability challenge, and do your own research project. In addition, you will get guest lectures from organisations and companies.'
Science for Sustainable Societies is a collaboration between three Leiden University faculties: the Faculty of Science, Faculty of Social Science and Behavioural Sciences, and the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs. The programme is interdisciplinary, which means that you will combine and integrate insights and methods from different disciplines. This is important when you want to thoroughly analyse complex sustainability challenges.
You conclude your second year with Integrated Field Methods. In this four-week course, you will go on a multiple day field trip either to one of the Wadden islands in the Netherlands, or abroad. During this field trip you will analyse the coexistence between a natural environment and its human population using several field methods.
You conclude your studies with the Sustainable Societies Project and Thesis Research Project. In the Sustainable Societies Project, you will work in teams and dive into a real-life sustainability challenge commissioned by an external party. You will be trained to collaborate in a team and come up with practical solutions for your commissioner’s challenge.
The programme provides you with the knowledge, skills and mind-set to analyse complex sustainability challenges. Besides academic knowledge and skills, you will also be trained in transferable skills such as collaborating, project management, presenting, programming and modelling, data analysis, interviewing, and many more. Your academic and professional abilities prepare you for many different master's programmes and provide you with a great foundation for entering the job market. The programme offers a broad range of future employment prospects in areas such as government bodies, NGO’s, universities and research institutes, as well as in the private sector, for instance in consultancy.
We welcome students with an interest in natural and social sciences. Our admission requirements, information about deadlines, can be found on our website. It is important to us that you are sure Science for Sustainable Societies is the right programme for you. You will therefore follow an online (non-binding) matching procedure that compares your expectations and skills with the content of the programme.
Location: Leiden
year programme, 180 ECTS
programme established
largest lecture size
maximum tutorial size
