In future Master's students wishing to deregister for an exam will have up to five working days before the start of the exam period in which to do that. Until now, such a change-about was possible up to five days before the exam itself. The introduction of the student information system OSIRIS on March 13, on which the scheduling of the exam rooms is based, has made this change in procedure unavoidable, says Dean Jan Fransoo.

Student fraction Groep-één raised the subject on Monday in the meeting of the University Council. Faction member Neeltje Voesenek says that her faction is not happy with the way in which this subject has been submitted to the University Council.

Voesenek: “The Thursday before Christmas, the University Council (UC) was sent documents relating to this modification, together with notification that it involved only a small number of administrative changes. If we wanted to sit down with the Dean of the Graduate School before the meeting, we had to do so before January 5. At the time we didn't realize the urgency. Only during the preparations for the first UC meeting of this year did it become clear exactly what was involved. Those ‘administrative changes’ mean a considerable worsening of the situation for Master's students.”

According to Voesenek the worst case scenario students might soon arise that students will have to decide whether to participate in an exam three weeks in advance. “You can imagine? Many students are only in a position to make such a decision in the recess week preceding the exam period.”

Dean Fransoo is similarly unhappy with the fact that the new administrative system is necessitating certain changes to procedures. “It is undesirable and I find it an unfortunate situation, but my hands are tied. Last fall the OSIRIS team did its utmost to find a solution, but they were unsuccessful.”

Leniency scheme

The late submission of the proposals to the University Council was, says Fransoo, related to the wish to minimize the number of changes necessitated by the system. Agreements about a leniency scheme had already been made, he says.

“When it became clear last week that the University Council wanted to see more guarantees on this point, I promised that an explicit footnote would be inserted in the Program and Examinations Regulations (OER), under both registering and deregistering. This will state that if students do this before the ‘old’ deadline, namely five days before the exam, for the time being this will be processed manually.”

In the coming weeks students will be informed in greater detail about these changes, by various means including by email and on the campus screens. "We are also appealing fervently to them to stick to the new deadline," says Fransoo. "Experience with appeals of this nature, like last year's request to register for exams three weeks in advance, has taught us that the great majority of students respond to such requests.”

Voesenek of Groep-één says that the University Council will be keeping a close eye on all subsequent developments, “but right now it feels as if we have no choice but to accept these changes. It would have been nice if this had been handled more delicately.”