Introduction

On this webpage, you will find links to Rules and Regulations of the GSSS.

Few people are particularly fond of formal rules and regulations. Yet, they are important. Whenever more than two people need to work together, not having any rules easily results in inequality and injustice. We strive to be as clear as possible in setting rules, but we also try to keep the number of rules and regulations limited. All the regulations taken together constitute an impressive interconnected maze. Most of the rules you will encounter in the regulations will seem very familiar, as they are governed by common sense, or are widely applied in education all over the world. Still, some rules might not be as clear or logical as we think they are. Feel free to ask your programme manager/study adivsor about them.

Teaching and Examination Regulations (OER)

The teaching and examination regulations form the document that contains the essential regulations about the curriculum and the examination of each programme. The (minimum) content of these regulations is stipulated by Dutch law. They are also mainly based upon the suggested formulations used in the central UvA-Model-Regulations. Moreover, these Regulations have also been harmonised to quite an extent with all other programmes of the College and the Graduate School of Social Sciences. Here you will find the entry requirements, exit qualifications and curriculum. Also stipulated are rules concerning re-sits, validity of examinations and ‘cum laude'. These regulations are up-dated each year, with the involvement of the programme committee and examination committee.

Please note that the Dutch translation of these regulations is ‘Onderwijs- en Examenregeling', abbreviated OER. The abbreviation is commonly used.

Rules & Guidelines Examination Committee

Each programme has an examination committee. The examination committee formulates additional rules to the Teaching and Examination Regulations (OER) mostly concerning examinations, such as how written examination ought to take place. These regulations in fact are instructions of the examination committee for the lecturers of the programme.

As with the OER, these regulations are largely harmonised within the Social Sciences programmes at the UvA, there are only minor differences between them.

Thesis and/or Fieldwork Manuals

Some programmes have bundled all practical and regulatory information about the thesis and/or fieldwork in seperate documents.

Fraud and Plagiarism

By following the link below you will find a short explanation of the definitions of academic fraud and plagiarism and links to the UvA Regulations governing Fraud & Plagiarism, the GSSS Guide on how to avoid plagiarism and a more general short manual for writing a papers, used in the English taught programmes.

Problems, Appeals and Complaints

There are three sections in this subject: The first section consists of the Preliminary Procedure for Appeals and Complaints. This preliminary procedure states how students are supposed to act when they have a problem, appeal or complaint they want to raise. The aim of the preliminary procedure is to solve problems as efficiently as possible and to avoid lengthy formal procedures if possible.

The second section consists of the so-called Individual right of complaints at UvA. This is an adaptation of the ‘UvA-klachtenregeling' for the GSSS. It stipulates the complaint procedure of the UvA for general complaints that are not already regulated by any other regulations. In this case, too, students should have first followed the preliminary procedure.

We also refer to the The Universiteit van Amsterdam Ombudsman. The Ombudsman at the UvA can help with complaints that cannot be settled through any other complaint procedure. We have not included the integral regulations of the Ombudsman here, only the contact information.

The third section stipulates in short the procedure for appeals against grades.

UvA Student Handbook and Student Charter

All general rights and duties of registered students at the UvA can be found in the Student Charter. The full document is only available in Dutch. The English version contains the most essential information.

General information and programme information

Although all rules and regulations should be included in the documents mentioned above, you will find descriptions of these regulations in more day-to-day language at several places:

For more general information about your study programme, please refer to the programme description in the digital course catalogue at or the programme website at www.student.uva.nl. For students in the English taught programmes, general information also has bundled in the Student Handbook of the GSSS.

Useful referals for all students can also be found through the Student Service Point (MyUvA or www.student.uva.nl).