Minimum grade of 4 remains requirement for resits

Give students the right to a resit if they score a serious fail on their first attempt. That was the appeal made by the student section of the University Council earlier this year. A memorandum to that effect was reinforced by a petition signed by almost 2,400 students in two weeks.

During a council meeting at the end of last month, it became clear that the request would not be granted. After consultation with the vice-deans of the faculties, the UU board is sticking to the minimum grade. According to Rector Wilco Hazeleger, this agreement ensures that the workload of lecturers remains within limits.

More importantly, he believes that the rule is in line with the Utrecht education model, which is based on personalised and activating education. According to him, this principle is endorsed by all faculties.

This means that only students who have sufficiently mastered the material are entitled to a resit opportunity, Hazeleger believes. It is not without reason that the UU itself refers to a “remedial arrangement” rather than a “resit arrangement”. 'We don't want a single moment of assessment, but rather education in which lecturers provide feedback and involve students in the learning process.

Discussion nonetheless
Student council member Lieke Fokker expressed her disappointment with this position during the meeting. She also felt that the UU board was wrongly implying that all faculties were in agreement. According to her, the Faculty of Social Sciences was in favour of abandoning the minimum requirement.

Rector Hazeleger acknowledged that there had been discussion among the vice-deans, but that all faculties had ultimately rallied behind the current policy.

Vice-dean Irene Klugkist told DUB that students in the Faculty of Social Sciences regularly indicate that the “minimum 4 rule” causes stress. Several members of the Board of Studies are therefore in favour of amending the policy. This prompted her to “discuss the matter” with her colleagues. 'It turned out that the vice-deans of the other faculties support this repair scheme and want to keep it in place.

Two commitments
During the meeting with the University Council, Hazeleger indicated his willingness to comply with Fokker's request to conduct research into the pass rates for courses and the pass rates for first attempts. 'You are right that it could be more evidence-based.'

The rector also promised to enter into discussions with the Rebo and Geosciences faculties. These are the only faculties that apply a policy whereby students can achieve a maximum grade of 6 on a resit. This has been a point of contention within the Rebo faculty for many years. The programme committee recently argued in favour of abandoning the maximum grade.

‘We strive for harmonisation and unity of policy, so it would be logical to achieve that on this point as well,’ said Hazeleger.