Application procedure & deadlines

Open Courses Law 2024/2025

The Law Faculty offers about 80 law courses in English, on a wide variety of subjects.

Not all of these law courses are open to all groups of guest students (with or without bilateral agreement): some courses are only open to LLM students, some only to LLB students that are participating in the International and European Law bachelor's degree programme, and some only to advanced law exchange (or Open Courses Law) students (e.g. 4th year students). About 45 law courses are available to Open Courses Law students.

The law courses that can be followed by students who have no connection with our Faculty (so who are not LLM or LLB students, not law exchange students, nor students from other faculties in Groningen) form part of our Open Courses Law: courses that are open to e.g. lawyers, lecturers, people in legal professions who are interested in certain law subjects. For some courses applicants from all categories have to meet specific requirements.

Application

Applicants must send in an application which will be checked/assessed by the International Office and a member of the Faculty’s Board of Examiners. The application must consist of:

• the online application form Open Courses Law
• letter of motivation
• clear copy of passport
• study results up to date and/or present occupation
• proof of sufficient English proficiency (TOEFL or IELTS score or Cambridge C1 Advanced/Cambridge C2 Proficiency

Application procedure 2024/2025

If the applicant can be admitted, the International Office will inform the administration and hand over the file to the Open Courses Law administration, which will send a letter of acceptance to the applicant, together with the list of courses the participant is allowed to take.

From that moment on, all further practical details will be arranged by the Open Courses Law administration. The Open Courses Law administration will provide more information on the further procedure, registration, fees, way of payment, cancellation conditions, etc.

The contact person for the Open Courses Law is Ms Helen Hofman; she provides relevant information on the programme, the courses, and registers participants for the various courses and exams (please note: it is a completely different procedure from the one for students in an exchange programme!).

Please make sure to stay out of the system called Studielink, as that system is not connected to this programme in any way!

Deadlines

The application deadline for semester 1 courses is 1 June 2024. The application deadline for semester 2 courses is 1 November 2024.

Requirements English proficiency level

Students are exempted from proving proficiency in English if they are a native speaker and have completed secondary education or have already completed a bachelor programme in one of the following countries: USA, UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia. Applicants who do not fulfill the aforementioned requirement(s) for exemption must provide adequate evidence of proficiency in English. The following tests are accepted:

• (International) internet TOEFL:  score of at least 100, all sections sufficient (so at least 21 on each section)
• (Academic) IELTS Academic (British Council’s English Language Test): score of at least 7.0, all sections sufficient (so at least 6.0 on each section)
• Cambridge C2 Proficiency
• Cambridge C1 Advanced

Please note that none of the scores for the tests may be older than 2 years at the time of applying (they will not be accepted).

Course fees 2024/2025

For each course there is a fee, to be paid in advance by bank transfer, or you can pay your course fee in cash at the University cashier's office. Please note: you can only pay using banknotes of 200 euros each or less. After payment, the participant will be registered in our database and will receive a registration card. The fees for 2024/2025 are specified here.

Cancellation conditions

Cancellation must be done in writing and can be done without costs until four weeks before the start of a course. Cancellation done between four and two weeks before the start of the course will cost € 65 (administration costs). In case of cancellation done fourteen days (or shorter) before the start of the course, no refund of the course fee will be given.

After successful completion of a course, participants will receive a certificate.

Only online applications can be considered. Therefore use the form: online application form Open Courses Law.