The group assignment lie

Going grey and stressed, I am now in my third year – it feels like an eternity since my first year at Utrecht University. There are six words that immediately make you think of that one person or those people. You know what I mean, they come in all shapes and sizes. The ones who, at the first meeting, nod and smile, sound receptive, join the WhatsApp group, and then disappear off the face of the earth until ten minutes before the deadline. Meanwhile, you're sitting on your bed, half crying, half furious, cobbling together a report that will have their name at the top.

The university calls this “learning to collaborate”. I call it theatre.

Because let's be honest: no one learns to collaborate here. What you learn is how to clean up other people's messes while pretending that everything is fine. You learn how to remain polite during the work session to the person who is late for the fourth time. You learn how to write in the evaluation ‘the collaboration was constructive’ when you actually want to scream: I DID EVERYTHING MYSELF.

The bizarre thing is that everyone knows this. Teachers know it. Students know it. Yet we continue to pretend that group assignments are a great pedagogical tool. As if reality – three people working, two watching, one missing – isn't constantly proving otherwise.
‘But in your future job, you'll also work in teams!’

Yes. With this difference: in a job, bad teammates don't get promoted. Here, they get the same grade as you. It's not even frustrating anymore, it's just absurd. You can do everything, prepare the entire presentation, check sources, fix the layout – and then someone stands there during the pitch reading two slides with the emotional involvement of an IKEA instruction manual. Same mark.

And then there's that one group. Once in a while. Where everyone does their part, where meetings don't feel like a chore, where criticism can be given without drama. Where it really clicks. Those groups are rare. Magical, almost.

But they also prove something: that collaboration is possible. When people are motivated. When the chemistry is right. When everyone wants to. And that's the issue. Group assignments only work if everyone participates. But you can't force that. You can put students in a group, but you can't force them to give. To try. To take responsibility.

So what now? Abolish group assignments? That would be wonderful, but also a shame. Because those rare moments when it does work – that's where you learn something. About collaboration, yes, but also about people. About differences, frustrations, compromises.

Perhaps that's the real lesson. Not that teamwork is always fantastic, but that it's often a pain in the neck – and that you have to learn to deal with that. That the world isn't just made up of motivated people who do their best. That sometimes you're just unlucky.

A warning, not a miracle. But a lesson that sticks.

This is one of the nominated columns for the 2026 campus columnist competition. The winners will be announced on Wednesday, 14 January, at DUB's New Year's reception. The two winners (one for the Dutch page and one for the English page) will each receive the Erik Hardeman stipend (1,000 euros) and publish a column on DUB every three weeks in 2026.