Students have their say on resit policy

Many students came to a Student Council meeting about the proposed resit policy.
Photo Student Council

On Friday 7 October, in a packed room in Forum, the Student Council discussed the proposed new policy on resits with students. According to that proposal, the number of resits students are allowed per course each year will be reduced from two to one. The Student Staff Council, which includes the Student Council, will vote on the proposal in November. Dean of Education Arnold Bregt and education policy officer Jetske ten Caat were at the meeting to answer questions.

During the session, students voiced their concerns. They pointed for example to the risk of an accumulation of failed courses and ‘problem courses’ — courses where lots of students require several resits to pass the exams. Even now, those courses can lead to delays in completing the degree, say the students. They therefore think consideration should be given to how to deal with such courses. But the policy-makers hope it won’t take students so long to pass courses with the policy change. ‘Research shows that a less lenient resit policy reduces the tendency for delays and improves grades,’ says policy officer Ten Caat.

Then there are the exceptional circumstances. What if you only need to resit one more course but still have to wait a year? The Student Council thinks special rules are needed for such cases.

Workload for teachers

The main reason for changing the policy is the workload for teachers. It costs them a lot of time and effort to compile and mark multiple resit exams a year. And because the current policy is so lenient, there are quite a few students who don’t prepare as well as they could for their resit exams; after all, they can always have another go. That adds to the frustration among teachers, who are already very busy. While most of the students present showed understanding for teachers’ frustration and work pressure, there were also concerns about a possible increase in the work pressure for students.

The students at the meeting gave some suggestions on how to improve the proposed new policy. For example, they would like one of the resit weeks to be available for resitting all courses. Another suggestion was to delay the proposed resit period now scheduled immediately after period 6 by one week to give teachers more time to mark the exam papers and students more time to study.

Evaluation

Afterwards, Dean of Education Bregt concluded that the students had a lot of questions and were quite critical, but they could also understand why the proposal had been made. Ten Caat: ‘It is useful to hear what concerns and ideas students have about this complex issue.’ Student Council chair Sanne Vermeij: ‘The students were willing to listen to the teachers’ arguments and point of view, but they were also able to have their say, in particular with regard to exceptional cases, for which clear procedures need to be drawn up. As the Student Council, we represent the students. This evening, we functioned as a bridge between the students and the board.’

The Student Staff Council will soon organize something else to get input from staff on the proposal. The council will vote on the proposed new resit policy in November.

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