Step-by-step LLM programme Governance and Law in Digital Society

Please make sure to complete your registration as a University of Groningen (UG) student before arrival

Hand in the certified copies of your degree certificate, transcript and English proficiency test in hard copy at the Admissions Office

Hard copy means: sending it in by regular mail!

The address of the Admissions Office is:
Admissions Office Programme: Master of Laws (LLM) programme [your programme]
Attn.: [your Admissions Officer]
St.Nr.: [your student number]
Broerstraat 5
9712 CP Groningen
the Netherlands

Fill in your payment details in Studielink

You need to fill in the payment details for your tuition fee in Studielink. You will receive (several) emails about this. Please make sure to complete this information as soon as possible!

Pay your tuition fee timely

Your tuition fee needs to be registered as being paid by the administration before 1 September. Therefore: please make sure to make the payment timely. No payment of the fees before 1 September means no registration which means you cannot start the programme.

Upload your picture

Do not forget to upload your picture. You will have received emails from the Student Information & Administration to this effect. This picture is needed to produce your student card. Your student card can be used to borrow books from the library, to print and make copies using the University machines and to buy coffee/tea from the University coffee machines. A brief manual on how to upload your picture can be found here.

Overview & set-up of the academic year

The academic year consists of four blocks and is set-up as follows:
Semester 1
Block 1: 7 weeks of classes, 3 weeks exams
Block 2: 7 weeks of classes, 2 weeks exams, 1 week resits block 1
Semester 2
Block 3: 7 weeks of classes, 2 weeks exams, 1 week resits block 2
Block 4: 8 weeks of classes, 2 weeks exams, 2 weeks resits block 3 and 4

> Check your study programme Governance and Law in Digital Society here.
> Check the academic calendar 2022-2023.

Study load

Every year you can obtain 60 ECTS. This is an average of 15 ECTS per block. One ECTS stands for 28 hours of work.

Educational formats

The Faculty has different educational formats: lectures (HC) and working groups (WG). The course descriptions in Ocasys indicate which educational format will be used in each course. Click here if you want to read more about the educational formats used.

UG mail

In the course of your programme, the University and Faculty will be communicating with you through your University of Groningen (UG) email account. Many students choose to forward their UG mail to the email address they already use daily. Please be aware that the UG mail might, in such cases, end up in your spambox. If you wish to forward your UG mail, please click 'settings' and then choose 'forwarding and POP/IMAP'. You can indicate to which email address you wish to forward your UG mail. By following the steps below you can check your University of Groningen email:

• Go to UG mail
• Log in using your UG account details

From September onwards, the Faculty will send all important information to this UG email account. You can access your UG mail through the web (https://googleapps.rug.nl). All information about the UG mail account can be found on 'Google Apps for Education'.

Activate your account

Please go to account.rug.nl and click 'activate account', if you have not done so yet. You will need to use your student number for this activation. Your student number was emailed to you by the administration.
Please place an S in front of your student number, fill in your birth date (very specific format!) and the email address you used to apply. A code will be sent to your email address (please also check your spambox!), which you will have to copy into the field shown to you. You can now reset your password and use your UG account.

Multi-factor Authentication

As an extra security measure, the University of Groningen uses Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) to login to all services the UG offers. You can find more information about the MFA and how to set-up the MFA for your account on this page.

Using the University of Groningen WiFi when onsite

The University of Groningen is connected to the eduroam WiFi. Using the network basically requires you to login as student, but the settings are slightly different for WiFi-use. For more information, please check this webpage. Please be aware that you need to login with your UG account in order to access this information.

Progress is the programme in which you enrol for courses and can check your results. Based on your course enrolment, you will automatically be enrolled for the course information on the Student Portal (see step 7), the exam and the possible resit exam. The enrolment period for the block 1 courses is open from 22 August 2022 until 18 September 2022.

How to enrol

1. Go to Progress. Please make sure to put the programme to English instead of having your browser do the translations for you!
2. Login using your UG account details.
3. Click "Enrolling".
4. Choose "Faculty of Law", "Enrolment Courses (Brightspace and Exams)", and click "Block 1".
5. Tick the boxes of the courses you will be participating in in block 1 and click "enrol" (to be found at the bottom of the list).

The enrolment for block 2, 3, and 4 courses will open at the beginning of the examination period of the previous block and will remain open for five weeks.

For more information about enrolment of courses, please see the Law Knowledgebase.

Are you experiencing problems with or do you have any questions about your enrolment? On Monday 22 August the administration can be contacted via +31 (0)50 363 5721 from 8 am till 11.30 am and via email: octa-rechten rug.nl. After Monday 22 August 11.30 am, the administration will only be available via email.

Schedule generator

Go to the schedule generator (see image below). The new schedule is available from early August onwards. Select the Faculty of Law. Choose your programme(s). The schedule will then hold all courses in your programme(s) for block 1 and 2. You can import your schedule into your UG Calendar (using the 'Ical' button in the schedule generator).

Abbreviations

The schedule frequently uses the following abbreviations:
HC = lecture
HCA or HCB = lecture A and lecture B: both parts need to be taken
Any particularities about a class can be found in the final column 'remarks'.

Schedule changes

The schedule generator will contain up-to-date information. Therefore: check your time table regularly in order to keep track of possible time table changes!

Class rooms

The location of all class rooms can be found here.

You can order your books and readers by taking the following steps

Ocasys

You can find all information about the courses in our online education catalogue Ocasys. All programmes and courses can be found there. Click here for the LLM Governance and Law in Digital Society. By clicking each course, you can find the required literature in the course description (usually near the end of the course description).

Ordering books

You can order your books through Nexus (the study association for international law students) if you wish; this is an online bookstore which delivers books in the Netherlands. It is also possible to order your books at a book store in the city centre. The Nexus book sale can offer you up to a 14% discount. You can click here for the Nexus book sale.

Ordering readers

Throughout your programme you will need educational material which has been devised from multiple publications (taken from books or journals) or which has been developed by lecturers themselves. Such materials are called 'readers' or 'syllabus'. The price you pay for these readers includes the copyright of the articles it holds.
The readers used by the Faculty of Law can be ordered through the Syllabi webshop.

Student Portal

The Student Portal is a very important source of information for students. All information has been listed clearly on one webpage. You will find, amongst other things, important Faculty messages, news items and course information about all the courses you have enrolled for.

Course information under 'Courses'

Based on your course enrolment you will get automatic access to the course information on the Student Portal.

• Check the course information on the Student Portal a few days before the programme starts.
• Check the 'need to know' column (at least) weekly to be updated on the latest news and developments.

NB. It may take up to one day before a course enrolment in Progress is visible on the Student Portal. If the course is still not visible on the Student Portal one day after you enrolled, then it is possible the lecturer has not made the course available to students yet. In case the course information is not available yet after the course has already started, please contact the International Office.

The Faculty of Law has put together all information regarding the Law programmes in the Law Knowledgebase. Please make sure to always read the information that is offered on the English pages instead of having your browser make translations for you; the information on the Dutch and English pages is not always exactly the same and the forms offered are different ones.
This Law Knowledgebase can be found in two ways:

• Using this link www.rug.nl/law/knowledgebase
• By going to the Student Portal, clicking the tab 'Study Info' and to click 'Go directly to'. Here you will find, amongst others:

Rules and Regulations

The Law Knowledgebase holds the Teaching and Examination Regulations (TERs). These Regulations contain all information with regard to the LLM programmes: aims of the programme, study load, examinations, course content, exemptions, etc. In addition, there are some other regulations available, which are also applicable to you: the Examination Regulation, the Internship Regulation, the Thesis Regulation, the Student Charter and so on. To check out these regulations, click here.

Study advisers

You can ask all questions and discuss your problems that are (slightly) related to or have consequences for your studies to the study advisers of the International Office. In addition to offering you advice on about your programme, the study adviser can also arrange for leniency in force majeure situations (e.g. illness or personal circumstances). The study advisers can also refer you to other facilities within the University. And lastly, the study advisers can help you with your study planning. Read more about the study advisers here.

Studying with extra facilities

If you have physical impairments, longterm psychological complaints, dyslexia or other functional impairments, you can apply for extra facilities. We strongly advise you to apply for these extra facilities as soon as possible. You can do so by filling in this form and to inform the study advisers of the International Office of your situation after which you apply to the Board of Examiners for these facilities by using this form. It can take some time to arrange for certain facilities. More information about studying with extra facilities can be found here.

If you would like to get access to lecture-recordings because of your impairment, please go to Access to lecture-recordings.

Career Services Law

Do you already know which positions you are aiming for or which career path your LLM programme opens up for you? And how do you prepare yourself properly for entering the job market? Career Services Law is set up to help you with these types of questions. For career prospects and career support during your studies, please check the Career Services Law webpage. You can also find the contact details there of the Faculty's Career Coach, José van der Veen.

Global & Intercultural Engagement Distinction (GIED)

The University of Groningen wants to offer you the possibility to complete an extracurricular Global & Intercultural Engagement Distinction (GIED), so you can increase your intercultural and language skills, and with that, your labour market value. The Faculty of Law currently is the only Faculty offering this distinction, so you will be the first to benefit. For more information about GIED, please check the GIED webpage.

Important dates

11 July - Pre-departure webinar

Campus Fryslan offers a pre-departure webinar for you. In this webinar, students and staff members will guide you in the process of getting you fully enrolled at the University of Groningen - Campus Fryslân and the next steps such as housing, the city of Leeuwarden, what to expect when moving to The Netherlands, and for those coming from outside the European Union, visa and residence permit procedures. You can sign up using this form.

Arrival in Leeuwarden: end of August

Since there is a (compulsory) introduction session as from 31 August, the Faculty strongly advises you to arrive in Leeuwarden before that time. A good time to arrive would be between 26-31 August. More information about travelling to Leeuwarden can be found here.

2 September - Introduction Day

On Friday 2 September your Introduction Day is happening, this activity is for students from all Master’s programmes taught at Campus Fryslân. The introduction day is not obligatory, but it will be fun and informative, so we strongly advise you to attend. It is a nice opportunity for you to get to know your fellow students and Leeuwarden. Please sign up via this form. To cover part of the costs of catering and fun activities, we ask for a small contribution of €10,- per person for this day. The deadline for registration and payment is 20 August.

The programme:

5 September - Start first classes

Classes will start on 5 September. This is week 1 of your time table. Please be aware that you are expected to already have prepared yourself before the start of the first lectures.

6 September - Opening academic year

The academic year will officially be opened for Campus Fryslan on 6 September. More information will follow soon.