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RELIC:
Shaping the future of heritage

This video is used as an illustrative example of cultural heritage related content relevant to the RELIC programme.

All rights belong to UNICEF. It is included here with credit and will be replaced by official RELIC content.

About

RELIC
Religion and Critical Heritage Studies

An Erasmus Mundus Joint Master in Responsible Cultural Leadership

RELIC is a two-year international master’s programme shaping the next generation of leaders in cultural and religious heritage. Designed for a global classroom, it combines academic excellence, interdisciplinary insight, and real-world impact. Responding to today’s cultural, societal, and policy challenges, RELIC equips students with the knowledge, skills, and leadership competences needed to govern heritage in a rapidly changing world.

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Global by design: Study in an international, interdisciplinary environment that reflects the global realities of cultural and religious heritage today.
Built for today’s challenges: Engage directly with the societal, cultural, and policy transformations reshaping heritage governance in Europe and beyond.
Leadership for real impact: Develop advanced analytical, transversal, and leadership competences to shape policy, institutions, and cultural futures.

Academic Vision and Mission

One programme, shared across countries

RELIC is delivered through a joint international curriculum designed and taught by multiple partner universities. Each institution contributes its expertise, giving students a truly interdisciplinary perspective on heritage governance.

Learn by moving: two mobility pathways

Students follow one of two structured mobility paths, studying in several countries across Europe—such as the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and Cyprus—and extending the experience globally to India and Mexico. This mobility is mandatory and fully integrated into the programme.

Theory meets practice

In each location, learning goes beyond the classroom. Students take part in courses, fieldwork, applied projects, and internships, gaining hands-on experience while working directly with heritage communities, public authorities, NGOs, and labour-market actors.

Graduate as a global heritage professional

By studying and collaborating across different cultural and governance contexts, students develop the ethical awareness, intercultural skills, and leadership competences needed to operate effectively in complex heritage environments worldwide.

RELIC Consortium

Blog & Media

Inside the RELIC Intensive Immersion Course in Cyprus

Every RELIC student follows a different mobility pathway during the first three semesters. Then, at the start of semester four, everyone comes together again in Cyprus for one of the programme’s most distinctive experiences, the Intensive Immersion Course. Hosted by the Cyprus Institute, this two week course is much more than a study trip. It is a practice based, collaborative learning experience where students work across disciplines and pathways to explore heritage in a con

Why Digital Heritage Needs Ethics

Digital tools are transforming heritage work. They help us document, preserve, analyse, and share cultural materials in ways that were impossible a decade ago. At the same time, they raise difficult questions about power, access, ownership, and representation. In RELIC, this tension is part of the curriculum, especially during the Barcelona semester at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Students in the Spanish and English pathway explore digital heritage through a critica

From Rosaries to Ampullae: How Groningen Students Helped Map Religious Heritage in Leeuwarden

Hannah Zondervan at the baptismal font from 1952. Photo: Jaap Schaaf A recent newspaper feature from the Netherlands highlighted a project that captures the spirit of RELIC very well: students from the University of Groningen researching religious heritage objects in the Dominican Church of Leeuwarden. The article presents a remarkable local collection of around 650 religious heritage objects, described as the largest collection of religious heritage in the Diocese of Friesla

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