A UCU education is characterized by its broad and interdisciplinary nature. As a student, therefore, you design your own curriculum. This means that the curriculum does not have a fixed structure; instead you combine different courses to assemble a personal study program. The full three-year program has six semesters of four courses each, so by the end your curriculum consists of at least 24 courses (180 ECTS). Once you’ve completed the program, a Bachelor of Arts (BA) or a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree is issued. Due to its very international community, at UCU all classes, examinations and communication with peers and professors are in English. During the first year you explore the academic world and the various academic disciplines. You take general academic skills courses that help develop writing, presentation and methodological skills, and you start learning a foreign language. You take courses at the introductory 1-level in at least two of the three departments - Science, Social Science and Humanities. By the end of your UCU program you must have taken at least one course in all departments. The second - or junior - year is aimed at expanding knowledge and skills. Before the start of this year you declare a major in one of the three departments, or possibly an interdepartmental major. You take courses at the intermediate 2- and advanced 3-level. During the third - or senior - year efforts are focused on finalizing the program by gaining sufficient disciplinary knowledge to apply for a Master’s program or a job. This culminates in the research thesis, a sizeable academic paper on a topic of your own choice.

The vast majority of UCU graduates (87%) apply to Master's programs. Of that group about 40% does so abroad (mainly UK and US), and of those who stay in the Netherlands a large proportion (about half) goes to Utrecht University. Other students enroll in Bachelor's programs, a small minority applies for a PhD position, and the remainder takes a year off, takes up an internship or goes to work right away.