Minister Van Engelshoven does not believe it is necessary to badger educational institutions to address problems related to corona and the duty of students to attend. But students and MPs are concerned. In recent weeks students have voiced their fear of sitting between infected fellow students in lecture theaters. Aware of their duty to attend, some students feel motivated to come to the campus as usual and avoid running into a study delay.

The Dutch National Students Association or ISO (Interstedelijk Studenten Overleg) speaks of “twisted incentives”. The ISO is keen to see a quick resit opportunity introduced across the board for students who miss an exam because they are adhering to the corona rules. The Dutch Student Union (LSVb) has set up a telephone hotline for students feeling pressurized to come to campus. 

Equal opportunities

“When you go into quarantine you mustn't lose any opportunities available to other students,” explains ISO president Lisanne de Roos. And so she wants students to be able to cancel and reschedule an exam if they must stay home because they have a cold or have tested positive. “We must prevent students with a runny nose from coming to the institution,” she says.

But isn't it a convenient excuse if you want to get out of doing an exam? “Students could abuse this option; I can't exclude that possibility. We believe it is more important that students don't come onto the campus with symptoms, so it's a risk we have to accept,” says De Roos.

Some institutions have already announced that they are offering students who have to quarantine an extra opportunity to take exams. According to De Roos, this proves that it is perfectly possible to adjust for the pandemic during exam periods without disadvantaging students.

Reporting sick

At TU/e, students who have corona or associated symptoms are subject to the same rules as students who have reported sick for any other reason. They are referred to the regular resit procedure. If as a result of failing the resit they run into a study delay, they can contact the examination committee and request a second attempt.

According to Patrick Groothuis, Director of Education & Student Affairs (ESA), since the start of the pandemic the examination committees have been very accommodating, on the whole, when dealing with student requests.

Appropriate solutions

The minister doesn't see any major problems. What could institutions do differently to encourage students to follow the corona rules? “I have the impression that institutions are already doing what's required so it isn't really a question of doing things 'differently',” she says, via a spokesperson.

She believes it is for the educational institutions and their students to decide jointly how a missed exam can be caught up. If she receives any “signals” from, say, student organizations, she will discuss these with the federations of universities of applied sciences and universities. For the time being, as far as she is concerned, nothing needs to change. According to the minister, institutions are already responding to the need to seek “appropriate solutions” by, for example, “being more leniently regarding the number of occasions on which a student may be absent and by and providing a replacement assignment or accommodating the individual student in some other way.”

Requirement

It is not a view shared by Hatte van der Woude, a VVD politician. “I'm not yet seeing this resolved in all institutions. And so I have asked the minister to talk before long with any educational institutions still following their ‘normal’ resit policy,” she says in an issued response. The party is also keen to hear from the minister how she intends to ensure that students who adhere to the corona measures do not miss any opportunities to sit exams.

More resits do mean more work for staff, recognizes Lisa Westerveld of GroenLinks. “But we find ourselves in a situation in which everything possible must be done to bring down the number of infections,” she believes. Educational institutions should, she believes, be “crystal clear and impress deeply on their students the need to stay at home if they have symptoms”.

Jan Paternotte (D66), a party colleague of the minister, wonders to what extent Van Engelshoven should be getting involved in local policy. “But the message is clear: you cannot allow any students with corona symptoms to attend exams,” he says.