Explore who you are — and what it means to be human in a global world. Uncover how The Four Wheels can drive you forward in personal growth, meaningful collaboration, effective communication, critical thinking, creative problem-solving, and in becoming the confident, compassionate global citizen your world needs.
The Four Wheels of Global Citizenship – the summer course that lasts a lifetime
Inner Development Goals. 21st Century Skills. Global Citizenship. You’ve probably heard the terms many times before — but where do you actually learn them? Right here.
Created by the Academy of Understanding, this widely acclaimed programme is designed for globally minded students eager to give a powerful boost to both personal growth and global citizenship — all in just five transformative days. Through a dynamic mix of reflection, exchange, and hands-on experience, you’ll dive deep into the art of active presence, connective attitudes, and positive engagement. You’ll be challenged to explore the world — and yourself — with curiosity, courage, compassion, and commitment.
What you discover will be both eye-opening and heartwarming. And from that point on, the Four Wheels Wheels will help you navigate familiar paths with greater ease — and discover new ones along the way.
The programme
The first four mornings are dedicated to introducing you to the Four-Mode Perspective — a powerful and universal framework showing that every challenge can be approached, and every message conveyed, in four distinct ways. By the end of these sessions, your ability to communicate and collaborate will have multiplied — giving you greater insight, flexibility, and impact in just four days.
Bring your walking shoes! Each afternoon from Monday to Thursday, we’ll head outdoors for inspiring walks in nature, where you’ll explore The Four Wheels of Global Citizenship. Along the way, you’ll take on meaningful and playful challenges that help you experience the power of the Four Wheels — building insights and skills that will stay with you for life.
On Friday, we wrap up by sharing our insights in Four-Mode Presentations, followed by a celebratory Achievement Ceremony and festive drinks.
The 60-Day Afterparty
Your learning doesn’t have to stop on Friday. You and your group are invited to continue the journey in the Circle of Understanding* — a private space in a mobile app designed to keep the connection alive. Over the next 60 days, you can complete 16 real-life micro-challenges, each quick and easy to do — yet fun and deeply impactful.
*This unique form of micro-learning is already being adopted by universities worldwide to support students and staff in developing global citizenship and 21st-century skills.
Your Hosts
The Four Wheels of Global Citizenship is offered in collaboration with the Academy of Understanding.
What recent participants wrote about the course
“It was impressive to have so many interactive activities that let us learn from a very different perspective and definitely, the teachers as much as the content helped me develop more as a person, as well as have a better understanding of global citizenship”.
"Even if you have high expectations of the course, I believe it will always exceed them; also, what you learn in and outside the classroom you will cherish forever. Hope you have the curiosity, courage and compassion to start the adventure and find out what's here to learn”.
“The highlight that I will cherish forever, is having met each of you and having shared moments together in all the activities”.
Ewald Theunisse
Miriam Zwaan
We are looking for students in any discipline who believe that human understanding is the foundation of global citizenship and want to train themselves in compassionate leadership, intercultural communication and collaboration.
A good command of English is necessary! Given the interactive nature of teaching, students must have the capabilities to actively contribute in class and communicate (understand and speak) in English well, ideally min level B2
The didactical approach of this course may be quite different from what you would expect from a traditional module. Together with lecturers and professional coaches from the work field we will guide you through a meaningful and valuable experience.
The sessions in Utrecht are highly interactive, challenging and fun; you will be invited to experience, experiment, reflect and discuss. You will learn by doing and explore different perspectives, while in the meantime being offered important personal and professional insights. The course will help you integrate your existing knowledge and skills with new insights, broaden your comfort zone and develop the mindset to improve communication and compassionate collaboration. During this learning experience, you will receive intensive coaching. Unless the weather doesn’t allow us, the afternoon sessions will take place in nature, where you will experience the the magic effects of learning-while-walking.
50 hours of training, workshops, coaching, assignments.
You will be graded based on their performance during the workshops and on the assignments, assessed by means of participation, handling feedback and a reflective report. Overall level of participation and cooperation within group settings will be considered when assessing your performance. Full time attendance is required to earn the credits for this course.
Please note: You must attend all learning activities (e.g. workshops, fieldwork) to be able to receive the Certificate of Participation and/or the credits for this course, unless absence is officially approved by the teachers and the coordinator of the Utrecht Summer School. You will be expected to be present until the final day of the course has ended. Please keep this in mind when booking your return flight. You can find your schedule in the Day to Day overview of your course on the course page.
The course fee presented, applies to all students currently enrolled in a bachelor, master or PhD programme and to 'Fresh Alumni'. If this applies to you and you therefore believe that you are eligible for this fee, please mention this in your motivation when applying for this course.
If not, a professional fee of €875 is applicable, and will be invoiced and visible for you in your account once you are accepted to the course.
Please note: if you do not provide proof that you are currently enrolled in a bachelor, master or PhD programme or that you are a Fresh Alumni', we will charge the ‘professional (higher) fee!
Lunch options
During the summer, food courts and food trucks on the campus are closed. The supermarket and restaurant are open, and in our dormitories there is a kitchen and fridge for home-made lunch. Besides we offer a 5 Days’ Sandwich Lunch package that you can collect at the restaurant on Utrecht Science Park everyday in the lunchbreak.
You can add this 5 Days’ Lunch package as a separate product once you are fully enrolled to the course. The price for the package is 60 Euros per week and can be ordered until two weeks prior to the start of your course.
The housing costs do not include a Utrecht Summer School sleeping bag and travel pillow (which you can take home after the course). Please note that the Sleeping bag is to be chosen as a separate product on the invoice (€50).
If you wish not to buy the Summerschool Sleeping bag and travel pillow and rather bring your own bedding (sleeping bag and pillow), do not forget to bring your own sleeping bag and pillow! In all cases, do bring your own towels, please.