Popular Culture

Projects with impact

What makes studying at Hanze UAS unique is that you will work on projects for real clients and contribute to concrete solutions for current issues impacting society. Below, you can find some examples of projects our students engage in.

About this programme

As a professional, you gain inspiration from your own ambitions as well as your engagement with your audience and with society in general. You want to contribute and make an impact with your story. This is something you’ll rarely do on your own: to make your projects come to life, you’ll need to work with others who can help you with things that you’re not (yet) familiar with. You’ll be learning as part of a community whose members inspire each other. The main focus throughout this broad, interdisciplinary degree programme is on the creation of products for an audience. Sharing your story with the audience is the key to making an impact. The Academy of Popular Culture is located in the bustling cultural hotspot that is the northern student city of Leeuwarden.

Supervision

Our commitment to you is that we’ll take active steps to challenge you, meet your learning needs, provide appropriate supervision throughout and help you reach the right level for professional practice. Instead of traditional classrooms, we make use of communities of learners, whose members inspire and stimulate each other and help each other out with feedback and ideas. You’ll learn to adopt inquisitive working practices, develop a vision on your place as a performer and make well-reasoned choices when it comes to elaborating, organising and realising your projects. This will help you track your progress and figure out your next steps. You’ll be coached by experienced lecturers, most of whom are also active in the professional field. This helps to blur the boundary between education and professional practice.

Throughout the year, we’ll organise a variety of field trips, training courses, workshops and guest lectures by professionals from all relevant areas to help you expand your professional network.

Career opportunities

Our graduates end up as artistic professionals in the cultural field. Some set up their own business, but most join a collective or a changing roster of partnerships. The main focus throughout this broad, interdisciplinary degree programme is on the creation of products for an audience. Graduates perform on stage, write songs, produce tracks, create short or full-length feature films or visuals, develop festivals, dress sets or host podcasts and websites where they present themselves or others. Sharing your story with the audience is the key to making an impact.

Master Up

With your Bachelor's degree you can apply for the Master of Arts in Fine Art and Design at the Frank Mohr Institute of Minerva Art Academy. 

In order to be admitted to the programme, it's essential that you already have some experience in a particular cultural field. For example, you sing in a band, design posters, create videos or are involved in organising a festival.  

Departing from this foundation, this bachelor's programme will help you discover what you're genuinely good at and in which direction you want to develop yourself further. Your personal development, personality and motivation will play a key role throughout the programme.  

Entry requirements

To enrol for the bachelor Popular Culture, you will need a national (home country) secondary school diploma or international secondary school qualification, such as an International Baccalaureate Diploma. It must have a level equivalent to the Dutch HAVO school diploma (General Secondary Education) or MBO-4 diploma, with NLQF/EQF level 4 or higher.  

If you want to know more about the value of your own diploma, you can also check the diploma comparison site of our national agency NUFFIC. 

Even with insufficient preliminary education, you may still be admitted to the Academy on the grounds of 'exceptional talent' and a good performance in a test. The test indicates whether or not you can function at a higher professional educational level. You must pay the costs of this test yourself. When you are accepted on the grounds of 'exceptional talent' you will receive an invitation to take the test. 

Application procedure

If you meet the entry requirements, you can enrol via Studielink. By doing this you register for the study programme and for the intake of the Academy of Popular Culture. 

Admission dates 2024-2025
Thursday, March 28, 2024 - portfolio deadline Thursday, March 14, 2024 
Thursday, April 25, 2024 - portfolio deadline Thursday, April 11, 2024 
Thursday, May 30, 2024 - portfolio deadline Thursday, May 16, 2024 
Thursday, June 27, 2024 - portfolio deadline Thursday, June 13, 2024*

*Only for EU/EEA students. Non-European/EEA nationality students have a deadline for June 1st, 2024, due to the immigration deadline.

1. After registration, you will receive a message from us with the request to upload your portfolio and appendices via “Osiris Toelating Minerva” (for content and design of this portfolio see instruction portfolio).

2. This portfolio contains your own artistic work with an explanation and a one-minute video (for content and criteria see Assignment One-minute film).

3. You ensure that your portfolio including the film assignment and audiovisual attachments are uploaded or submitted via Osiris before or on the final submission date.

4. You will eventually receive an invitation for an admission assessment (for the content and criteria of this assessment, read the admission assessment instruction).