UU Council feels sidelined regarding plan to halt honours programmes

In early November, news broke about UU's plans to discontinue honours programmes at the Bachelor's level from the next academic year onwards. The measure will yield over 1.5 million euros annually. The plan is to embed honours education in the regular programme. University-wide honours programmes, such as Descartes, and honours programmes at the Master's level will remain. 

According to the University Council, the news came unexpectedly and "not through the regular channels". Council members learned about it "accidentally" while reading a draft transition plan for the Faculty of Humanities and the summary of a meeting with the vice deans of education. 

An e-mail was also said to have been sent to honours students, in which the policy change was "announced as a fait accompli", according to student member Koko Byalkov and staff member Gerhard Blab, who wrote a letter to the Executive Board on behalf of the University Council (you need a Solis ID to read it, Ed.).

Not decided yet
Not only is the University Council angry that it was not informed about it, but it also accuses the board of giving the wrong impression that the plans are already final. The council has not discussed the plan yet and it still needs to be voted on. Only after the council approves a change in the Education and Examination Regulations (OER) can the faculty councils get started on terminating the honours programme. It is not yet known whether the University Council is favourable to the change.

Despite all this, programmes were instructed to remove any mention of honours programmes at the Bachelor's level from the presentations given on the Open Days. The council heard that programmes were told that "the University Council had already agreed to the abolition of honours education".

Faculties
The Faculty of Humanities wants to speed up this process and is already considering the termination of honours programmes at the Bachelor's level in its budget, on which the faculty council will soon vote. “The Faculty Council at the Faculty of Science was also asked to come up with a proposal to cancel the honours programme,” said student member Lieke Fokker (Vuur) in a committee meeting held on Monday, December 2. The student wants to know how the faculty councils can already be making plans if the University Council hasn't approved it yet.

Rector Henk Kummeling's response was short and sweet. He says the plans can “only be implemented once the council has given its approval”. If the council does not approve of it, the faculties will have “a serious problem”, he adds. “I am not saying this to put pressure on the faculties and the council, but that is the reality.”

The rector acknowledges the “misunderstanding and commotion” surrounding the communication and says things should have been done differently. He explains that the university did not think it was a good idea to provide information about honours education to prospective students when there is a possibility that they will be phased out.

UU will soon come up with a proposal to scrap the guideline that obliges faculties to offer honours education at the Bachelor's level. This will be discussed with the University Council early next year.