Exemptions and petitions
Do you want to request a change to the academic requirements set by your bachelor's or master's programme? Perhaps you want to be exempted from a particular course, because you think you have already acquired the knowledge elsewhere. Or do you want academic credits earned at another institution to be counted towards your studies in Leiden? If so you can submit a special request, known as a petition.
Speak to your study adviser or study coordinator about how to request an exemption or submit a petition of another nature. In most cases petitions must be submitted via uSis. However check first under the faculty or study programme tab whether any special procedures are in place.
The final decision on your petition will be made by your institute’s Board of Examiners.
Petitions in uSis
In most cases, if you want to request a change to your academic requirements you can submit a petition via uSis. For example if you want to be exempted from certain academic requirements, have study credits earned abroad recognised as part of your Leiden studies, or receive a different amount of credits for part of your curriculum. There are five types of petition:
- Exemption
Use this kind of petition if you want to request exemption from a particular part of your study programme. Sufficient materials must be submitted to support your request. - Different amount of study credits
Use this kind of petition if you want to request an amount of study credits for an element of your study programme that differs from the amount stated in the prospectus. Sufficient materials must be submitted to support your request. If the study element does not have a pre-specified number of study credits there is no need to submit a petition. Instead you should make arrangements directly with your study programme. - Extra-curricular course
Use this type of petition if you want to have an academic element from Leiden University’s prospectus included as one of your extra-curricular study elements. - Replacement
Use this type of petition if you want to replace an element of your study programme with another element from Leiden University's prospectus. This type of petition can be used, for example, for electives courses. - External education
Use this type of petition if you have taken a course at an institution other than Leiden University, and want it to count towards your study programme in Leiden. This type of petition could be used, for example, for elective credits or extra-curricular courses followed elsewhere. Petitions of this nature are always provisionally approved, then definitively evaluated upon receipt of documentary evidence.
You must submit a petition as soon as you realise that you want to change your academic requirements, which means as quickly as possible and before you follow the academic element in question. For information relevant to your particular situation please contact your programme’s education administration office.
No petitions on top of petitions
Once you have submitted a petition you cannot submit another one for the same academic element, irrespective of the status of the petition. If you change your mind, or realise you have submitted the wrong type of petition, you must first withdraw the petition before you can submit a new one for that particular academic element.
Withdrawing a petition
To withdraw a petition you must send an email to the education administration office of your study programme with the subject ‘withdrawal of petition number xxx’, with xxx being the petition number as stated in the confirmation email you received. Make sure to state your student number in your email and the reason for withdrawing your petition. Await confirmation that your petition has been withdrawn before taking further action.
Supporting materials
All petitions must be clearly but briefly substantiated. In addition, petitions for exemptions, different amounts of study credits and external education, must also be accompanied by supporting materials. When requesting an exemption, your supporting materials must be submitted at the same time as your petition. For petitions concerning different amounts of study credits or external education, your supporting materials (usually a transcript of grades) can be submitted after the academic element in question. Make sure to submit the materials as soon as you can. If you wait too long you run the risk that your results will no longer be counted towards your academic requirements. The required documentation can vary from programme to programme, so always check with your programme administration what you need to submit, when, and in what format (hard copy or digital) well in advance.
Appeals
If you do not agree with the outcome of your petition you can formally appeal against the decision. You can do so by sending a letter to the Examination Appeals Board within six weeks of the date of issue of the decision in question. In this letter, your formal appeal, state why you disagree with the decision. Make sure to include supporting materials and examples.
If you would like to use courses given from another programme toward your elective requirement you must always request permission in uSis to do so. If the request is approved, the course will be added to your elective course requirements. Requests to take electives which have course content which overlaps with the content of courses given by the Institute of Psychology will not be approved. Please carefully review the course description before submitting a request.
Instructions on how to request permission to take elective courses offered by another institution of Leiden University:
1. Open uSis and navigate to your “Academic Requirements”. These can be reached by:
- Clicking on the white schedule on the left (Units taken / Units required)
- Clicking on “Enroll” and then on “Enroll by My requirements”
2. Click on one of the empty “dummy courses” below the header “Electives” (i.e. 6464EM01Y)
3. Click on the “submit request”-button and choose the “Replacement”-type in the drop-down menu.
4. Fill out the information needed:
- “Course”: click on the magnifying glass and search for the course providing the Catalog Number from the E-Prospectus. Choose the code ending with a “Y”.
- “Explanation student”: describe the reason for filing the petition (i.e. you would like to add this course as an elective).
5. Click on “Add course” to add more electives (if applicable).
6. For this type of petition it is not necessary to upload documents supporting your request.
7. Provide a weblink to the description of the course(s) in the E-Prospectus.
8. Submit the petition.
As soon as the courses have been approved by the Board of Examiners, the course will be transferred to your Academic Requirements in uSis.
Instructions on how to request permission to take elective courses offered by other Dutch or foreign universities:
1. Open uSis and navigate to your “Academic Requirements”. These can be reached by:
- Clicking on the white schedule on the left (Units taken / Units required)
- Clicking on “Enroll” and then on “Enroll by My requirements”
2. Click on one of the empty “dummy courses” below the header “Electives” (i.e. 6464EM01Y)
3. Click on the “submit request”-button and choose the “External Education”-type in the drop-down menu.
4. Fill out the information needed:
- ”External organization”: fill out the name of the university you’ll be taking the course at
- “Original course name”: fill out the full name of the course name.
- “English translation course name”: fill out the full name of the course. Please note: Do not translate the course title yourself, but use the official English course title. If the offical English course title is not available, please copy the original course title in the English field.
- “Requested units”: fill out the amount of ECTS
- “Explanation student”: describe the reason for filing the petition (i.e. you would like to add this course as an elective).
5. Click on “Add external education” to add more electives (if applicable).
6. Upload the documents supporting your request, if applicable (i.e. course description, a certified transcript in case the course was taken at a university outside of Leiden University, etc.). Please note: while it is possible to upload a transcript of record in your petition, such a transcript is not sufficient to process your petition. Please provide the SSC with an original certified transcript of the courses you’ve taken outside of Leiden Universiteit. If you taken courses abroad, please provide your exchange coordinator with the original transcript.
7. Provide a weblink to a description of the course(s), if applicable.
8. Submit the petition.
As soon as the courses have been approved by the Board of Examiners, the course will be transferred to your Academic Requirements in uSis. Please provide the Student Services Centre (SSC) with a certified transcript of grades from the University you’ve taken the course(s) at (during opening hours). Please note: if you have taken the courses abroad, please contact your exchange coordinator for further instructions.
Please note: Requesting an exemption means that you have to convince the programme that you have already acquired the knowledge elsewhere. Submit the petition at the start of your studies. Does it concern several courses for which you want to request an exemption? Please, take up contact with the study adviser and name your possible exemptions, so they can look with you in your planning and the procedure.
- Open uSis and navigate to your “Academic Requirements”. These can be reached by:
- Clicking on the white schedule on the left (Units taken / Units required)
- Clicking on “Enroll” and then on “Enroll by My requirements”
- Click on the course you want to request the exemption for.
- Click on the “submit request”-button and choose the “Exemption”-type in the drop-down menu.
- Fill out the information needed:
- “Explanation student”: describe the reason for filing the petition (i.e. you would like to be exempted for this course based on …)
- Go to the online prospectus of Leiden University and look up the course for which you want an exemption. Copy the course objectives, credits, level and reading list in the application form.
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Copy the course objectives, credits, level and reading list of the course you have already passed in the application form. Make sure that you are able to hand over the reading material to the Examination Board if requested.
Please note: the words course objectives, credits, level and reading list may differ from the description of the course you have already passed. When you are not sure that it means the same, please contact the study advisor of the relevant university.
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Upload the documents supporting your request, if applicable (i.e. course description, a certified transcript in case the course was taken at a university outside of Leiden University, etc.). If the documents are in a language other than English or Dutch, make sure it is translated into English.
Please note: while it is possible to upload a transcript of record in your petition, such a transcript is not sufficient to process your petition. Please provide the SSC with an original certified transcript of the courses you’ve taken outside of Leiden Universiteit. -
If you want to add other information for clarification, you can do so in the "comments" field.
Please note: This information can only serve as a supplement to the above and not as a replacement. -
Provide two links (URL) of the course description. One link for the course for which you are requesting an exemption and one for the course you have already passed.
As soon as the course(s) has (have) been approved by the Board of Examiners, the course will be transferred to your Academic Requirements in uSis.