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This study considers the value of honors programs by investigating alumni perspectives of learning goals relative to personal and professional development. Using a longitudinal cross-sectional survey instrument, authors track participants (n = 79) for four consecutive years (2017-2021). Qualitative measures indicate the importance of freedom to develop within the curricula, stimulus to experiment and shape one's own path, and insights and inspirations resultant of rigorous study. Respondents identify certain learning goals (i.e., ability to look beyond boundaries and show initiative and guts) to be critical in their personal and professional development but question the role of the honors certificate in job applications. While data indicate post-graduate employment (<18 months) for the majority (62%) of alumni, nearly 23% in post-graduate study (a high percentage in Dutch universities of applied sciences), and 5% in trainee programs or apprenticeships, authors do not know to what extent employers use the honors certificate as a criterion for recruiting a candidate. Further investigation into the role and status of the honors certificate during job application is needed, including the viewpoint of employers.

This pilot study investigates the development and delivery of a 112-hour Dutch undergraduate honors course for global citizenship education, called Society 2.0. The theory-based curriculum guidelines Global Justice Citizenship Education (GJCE) were used to build the course by a development team consisting of two teachers, two honors students, and one researcher. The course was delivered twice. Content analysis of development documents and teacher interviews were conducted to answer three questions: What was the added value of course development with a team including teachers, students, and researcher? How did the model shape a. the formal and b. the operationalized curriculum? and in what way are the honors pedagogies 'freedom', 'challenge' and 'community' shaped in the course? Results indicate that the open atmosphere and equality in the development team positively influenced the atmosphere in class. The curriculum guidelines in the moral and social domains as well as experiential learning and honors pedagogies were applied in the course. Guidelines in the knowledge domain seemed the most difficult to realize, especially gaining insights in root causes of injustice. Results are discussed in light of their potential benefits to curriculum design and teaching for critical global citizenship in undergraduate honors programs.

A mission statement that identifies the goals and aims of an honors program is a key step in program development. The National Collegiate Honors Council's Basic Characteristics of a Fully Developed Honors Program states unequivocally that a successful honors program "has a clear mandate from the institution's administration in the form of a mission statement or charter document that includes the objectives and responsibilities of honors and defines the place of honors in the administrative and academic structure of the institution." Such mission statements have now become standard for honors programs and colleges. Following a brief history of mission statements outside of the academic world, this paper examines the online mission statements of current honors programs. This study investigates the link between the content of U.S. honors programs' mission statements, goals to be achieved, performance indicators, and outcomes in order to determine if mission statements in the U.S. have served the purpose for which they are designed. Such a determination can offer important guidance to developing honors programs in other parts of the world.

This essay is an updated revision of an essay published by Marca V. C. Wolfensberger in the "Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council" 5.2 (fall/winter 2004): 55-66. A lot has changed in the Dutch honours landscape since the original version of the study was published. Although the body of knowledge is increasing, the insight into effective honours programmes has not developed at the same pace as has the number of honours programmes. This essay explores what kind of peers, teachers, courses, and programmes honours students look for and need in their education. This article answers the following questions: (1) What are characteristics of honours students and how do they value teachers and courses?; (2) Are possible differences constant over time and consistent across (types of) universities?; and (3) Does the researchers' theory-based learning context, which is supportive of autonomy, academic competence, and relatedness through an honours community, actually correspond with the preferences of the honours students? The present paper strives to validate and expand some of the outcomes of the 2004 article.

An issue of "Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council" devoted to "Honors Around the Globe" is an important opportunity to consider the role of honors in creating international awareness and understanding. Honors faculty and administrators have become increasingly active in global cross-communication through, for instance, international involvement in the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC) and the recent conference on "Evoking Excellence in Higher Education and Beyond" in the Netherlands that attracted participants from numerous countries. As one becomes more familiar with honors in all its manifestation across the globe, now is a good time to consider the value provided by preparing students to contribute to this changing world. Honors administrators and faculty know that students must be educated so that they can discover answers to as yet unknown questions and challenges. Honors educators must enable them to find solutions using techniques that can only exist in dreams at present. Such techniques will allow the frontiers of human possibility to extend dramatically. Change itself has become systemic. The challenge is to educate in order to shape a sustainable future for all. Conflicts and problems have been created that now need to be solved. There is a need to educate in a way that inspires creative citizenship among people who are humble enough to recognize the powerful potential of collaboration, confident enough to confront tomorrow's problems, proud enough to sparkle with compassion, and ardent enough to make a better world. Honors programs, which function as laboratories for innovation in regular education, offer educational opportunities for talented, motivated students; educators have a special responsibility to inspire these students to respect other disciplines, cultures, and nationalities through genuine conversations, interactive learning, and international exchange. The aim must be to enhance, not compromise, human difference and dignity.

While the attractions and advantages of freedom that differentiates honors education from regular teaching are both theoretically and practically significant, the authors' experience at Utrecht University in the Netherlands has demonstrated drawbacks that need to be addressed and resolved in creating effective honors education. Freedom poses certain challenges to students, teachers, and the faculty in general; these challenges include guarding a program's coherence and quality, marketing the freedom in a clear and effective way, and ensuring that students challenge themselves. This essay introduces the challenges and struggles as well as the rewards that have been shaped by the particular contexts of the program within the Faculty of Geosciences, within Utrecht University, and within the Netherlands. The honors program of the Faculty of Geosciences fosters three kinds of freedom: (1) passion; (2) learning strategies and behavior; and (3) involvement. Freedom can only lead to extraordinary achievements when it comes with conditions and requirements. Such requirements have to be clear but also relevant to the students. Freedom needs to be scaffolded, especially in honors programs because critical consumers of education do not necessarily know how to organize education.

In Dutch universities, honors programs are a fast growing development. The first such programs started in 1993. Twenty years later a large number of programs are implemented at nearly all research universities and also at many universities of applied sciences in the Netherlands. Recent data have revealed significant diversity in the types and structures of honors programs, many of which have functioned as laboratories of educational innovation within university- wide curricula and had positive spin-off effects on the regular curriculum and also on the transfer of talented students from secondary into higher education. Especially in the last decade, these spin-offs have had a strong influence on educational policy in the Netherlands at the primary and secondary as well as university levels. This article presents an update to the authors' 2004 "Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council" article describing the increasing number of Dutch universities that had developed honors programs for the more motivated and able students wanting to do more than the regular curriculum offered them (Wolfensberger et al., "Honours Programs"). As a result, talented and motivated students were receiving many new opportunities. The development of honors programs was relevant as an important innovation in higher education with a wide influence on all university programs. Since 2004, this trend has continued to a degree, warranting this update to the authors' earlier findings.

The article presents information on a research paper which focuses on the role of mission statements in the honors programs in the U.S. and also analyzes their lack of alignment with either performance indicators or assessment practices. It is based on a survey of 169 programs randomly selected from the 842 institutional members of the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC) in 2009.