Programme structure
The aim of the programme
The BASUS programme was designed to foster multidisciplinary and multinational understanding of sustainability, exposing the students to an array of perspectives and concepts and encouraging their immersion in other cultures, e.g. through elective courses with a regional focus offered in the programme. The aim is not only to facilitate future dialogue in terms of sustainable solutions but to champion a culture of dialogue in all respects.
BASUS structure
BASUS is a three-year undergraduate programme divided into six semesters.
All students will spend the first two semesters, i.e. the whole first year, at the same, starting university (currently Uniwersytet Jagielloński w Krakowie), where they all follow the same curriculum made up of Common Core courses that instruct the students in the fundamental concepts, dilemmas and complexities of sustainability, and transversal methodological courses that equip students with necessary knowledge and skills to study successfully. Additionally, during the first year, the students will take six Introduction to Track courses, whose designed aim is both to familiarise the students with all the specialised courses available in year two and three and to measure the students’ aptitude for each discipline.
Available tracks
Starting the second year, the students will spread out across Europe to different partner universities to follow their respective tracks. Each track will be coordinated and hosted by one of the degree awarding universities of the programme:
Chemistry & Climate Physics
Economy & Geography
Law & Politics of Sustainability
Environmental & Life Sciences
Economics, Management & Engineering
Social Sciences & Humanities
Track courses are three semesters long and take place during both semesters of the second year and the first semester of the third. They are designed to endow students with more discipline-focused but still interdisciplinary understanding of sustainability and, analogously to the first-year courses, will be taught by joint teaching staff made up of experts from all universities associated with the programme.
The students will declare their chosen track at the end of the first year. As each track can admit up to 30 students, the students will be accepted into these specialised courses based on the grades they were awarded for the respective Introduction to Track courses during the first year. Thus, the Introduction to Track courses should be employed by the students as a testing ground for their own aptitudes and interests.
Further mobility opportunities
Following the three semesters of track courses, the students will have the ability to spend the last semester at any of the eight universities associated with the programme, i.e. KU Leuven; Universidad Complutense de Madrid; Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne; Universität Zürich; Uniwersytet Jagielloński w Krakowie; Helsingin yliopisto/Helsingfors universitet; Freie Universität Berlin; or the University of Edinburgh.
The final semester is designated for the bachelor’s thesis – thus, the student can spend it at any of the universities associated with the programme with the thesis supervision happening either onsite or online. Additionally, we are aiming to facilitate students’ participation in summer schools hosted by one of the partner universities, tackling more generic topics and issues connected with sustainability, as an optional elective.
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