During their final-year project at the University College Groningen, the PATH team, composed of Marcus, Mia, Mira, and Stephen, felt compelled to address an issue that many members of the UCG community had both sensed, yet nevertheless overlooked.
Characterized by its interdisciplinary, small-scale, and interactive learning environment, the Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) program offered at UCG provides students with an unusual amount of freedom in the construction of their own programs. While taking a more active role in determining the composition of one's own curriculum can engender a greater sense of personal autonomy, such freedom can, in certain instances, be marked with greater levels of uncertainty and anxiety.
Such an experience is not unfamiliar to students at UCG. With no fixed curriculum to follow and no clearly defined professional trajectory associated with a LAS degree, students are often required to make consequential academic decisions with relatively few available examples to guide them through the process.
Yet, despite these difficulties, the knowledge required to navigate such uncertainty is not absent – it resides with students and alumni belonging to later cohorts who have both already encountered and overcome many of these challenges. It would therefore appear that the problem is not the absence of knowledge, but rather its limited circulation.
Against this backdrop, PATH was created to make such knowledge more visible and accessible. Conceived as a digital living library, PATH functions as a directory of students and alumni willing to share their experiences and insight with either prospective students or those from earlier cohorts. Each profile acts as a "book", allowing users to identify individuals with relevant experiences and connect with them directly. In doing so, PATH seeks to strengthen connections across cohorts and help bring practical insights embedded within the UCG's community to those who can benefit from it most.
PATH surfaces experiential knowledge from students and alumni — the kind that does not appear in brochures or advisor meetings.
Profiles are built around concrete things a person knows or has done — not "happy to chat" but "ask me about applying to medicine from a sciences track."
Being on PATH takes one form. Connecting takes one email. The system works because it costs almost nothing to use.
PATH is designed to be handed on to the next cohort. It belongs to the UCG community, not to any single group of students.
PATH is in its early stages. If you are a current UCG student or alumni and would like to be included, get in touch with the PATH team.
Email: path@ucg.nl · replace with your actual contact email