UU wants to scrap honours programmes. Do you get it?

Eliminating honours programmes at the Bachelor's level is one way UU intends to reduce its expenses following the significant budget cuts announced by the Dutch government. 

According to the Executive Board, such programmes are becoming less and less unique as interdisciplinary approaches are already present in the education provided to all students. Besides, the university intends to apply that approach to many more fields through a new education model.

But that's not all. Having a programme for a select few doesn't match the university's mission to make its education inclusive. "Everyone is excellent", stated the Faculty of Humanities when justifying the cancellation of its honours programmes.

To what extent do UU students and employees agree with the university's reasoning? To find out, we asked the following question to the DUB Panel:

UU intends to scrap honours programmes at the Bachelor's level. Do you get it?

Innovation scientist Frank van Rijnsoever:

"Yes, I get it. It is never fun to tighten the belt and the university has invested a lot in honours programmes in recent years. I hope the knowledge acquired from these experiences can be used elsewhere because they are valuable.

Besides, this decision affects relatively few students, and there are still honours programmes at the university-wide level. I would rather see cuts here than have even more regular programmes close their doors. Who knows, maybe in the future, when we have more wiggle room, we might come up with another initiative. Sometimes you have to get rid of something to continue to innovate.”

Pedagogical scientist Kirsten Buist:

“No, I don’t get it. I understand that money must also be cut from honours programmes in times of budget cuts, but eliminating them is far too drastic and ignores the important role these programmes fulfil.

Our programmes also want to attract students who need additional challenges. We provide such challenges through honours programmes, which are often interdisciplinary. Say motivated students can't get these challenges from our programmes but they can get them elsewhere – at another university, for example. This would weaken the appeal of our programmes and our university, not to mention our student population would become less diverse.

In addition, alternative forms of honours education have not been sufficiently researched yet. We must be careful not to throw all our beautiful babies out with the bathwater because of the government's austerity measures.”

Quintijn de Leng, Master student in Urban & Economic Geography:

“I am familiar with UU's honours programmes from several sides: as a participant in the Geosciences Honours Programme; a participant in the university-wide honours programmes both at the Bachelor’s and Master’s levels; and, now, as a teacher. I see the effort the lecturers involved put into making this an inclusive and accessible option for students, and I see the personal attention honours students get. I would therefore find it a great pity if no more students could experience a different and less massive side of the university.

According to the new educational model that must be incorporated into the strategic plan 2025-2030, every Bachelor’s student will be exposed to Community Engaged Learning. Interdisciplinarity and relationships with society will also play a greater role. These are really good developments and major decisions that I have a lot of praise for. The new educational model also relies on the experiences gained in honours education. But is 'Education’ now finished? Is it now up to us to cut back on such a valuable, small-scale educational setting where experience is gained through new forms of education?”

Biologist Suzan Ruijtenberg:

“No, I don’t get it. Most honours programmes are provided by lecturers giving motivated students something extra. Therefore, the most significant costs are their salaries. In addition to honours programmes, these lecturers perform many other teaching tasks, as well as research and management. Teaching at the honours programme is only a small part of their tasks and they often do it in the evening.

Abolishing these programmes will not lead to the dismissal of these lecturers and therefore not yield any direct savings in the short term. Moreover, the money that is currently going to honours programmes (such as the more than 180,000 euros for the Faculty of Science) will disappear from the budgets of faculties and departments, while other costs will remain virtually unchanged. This may be a cutback at a central level, but in practice, it means that faculties and departments will receive less money even though they will have the same costs."

Research analyst Mies van Steenbergen:

"It is true that temporary teachers cannot be replaced due to the cutbacks and the vacancy freeze. Formally, not extending a temporary contract is not a forced dismissal, but the result is the same in practice: people become unemployed.

The bottom line is that fewer people will remain employed but the work still has to be done, and reducing the teaching load must be in line with this. Teachers who are currently working for the honours programmes will be deployed wherever there are gaps. That is a good way to curb the workload.

We can only spend the money once and the honours programmes do take up quite a lot of teachers' time. Is this the best choice, though?"

Psychology student Levi Bierhuizen:

“I've participated in the Descartes honours programme for six months (this is a university-wide programme that will not be cancelled, Ed.). Throughout these six months, I was able to watch several interesting guest lecturers talking about subjects that would never have been covered by the Psychology programme. I was exposed to new points of view, different approaches and broader discussions. So, I think honours programmes are very beneficial to students and the university.

At the same time, I don't think it's entirely unjustified to abolish honours programmes to retain regular education. I agree with the argument that programmes are becoming more and more interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary, so they are partly taking over the range of honours education. Nevertheless, I think that honours programmes can offer more than regular programmes can. We're going to lose that, unfortunately.”

Educational scientist Casper Hulshof:

“Just say you want to spend less money, don’t try to come up with arguments to justify it. An honours programme is more than a place where you find interdisciplinarity in a specific programme. The ‘everyone is excellent’ argument is too absurd for words. It is the same paradox as in Alice in Wonderland: 'At last Dodo said: 'EVERYBODY won and they must all get a prize.' So, I get it, but don’t pretend there are substantive arguments to cancel it.”