Stopping Skills Lab will harm the students who need extra support in their studies

A huge cost-cutting reorganisation is underway at University Corporate Services; it has even been reported on by the NOS (National Broadcast Organisation). Many jobs, functions and people are going to disappear. One of the decisions taken in these cost-cutting measures is to stop funding the Skills Lab. We consider this an incomprehensible decision for more than one reason. The Skills Lab was established in 2016 by the Executive Board – at the request of the students on the University Council – as a writing centre and for central coordination of academic skills support. All students at Utrecht University can receive free writing and study coaching there and can participate in activities such as a writing week. As of February 1, these activities would stop. We wonder:

• Where can the approximate 2,500 students with whom we have annual consultations go? Thanks to this tutoring, students  – sometimes through just one session – can get back on track with their study timeline and thus prevent study delays, can get a grip on their thesis and are able to finish it, learn to use effective study strategies, and become motivated anew in their studies. 

• Where can the 325 students who boosted their thesis last year through events like our Thesis Kick-Off, Writing Day, and Thesis Writing Week go? Will they have to go to commercial thesis companies and ChatGPT because there is no place to go for help at their own university?
   
• To where can study advisors, teachers, and supervisors refer their students when they need some extra support with their coursework and writing tasks? It is the accessibility of Skills Lab’s one-on-one tutoring by a peer (student) from outside the programme that gives students a fresh perspective on their writing and studying processes.
   
• How will students be able to find their way around when the Skills Lab’s role as “Gateway to Your Academic Development” is no longer functioning and, as a result, extracurricular support is no longer tracked in this central spot and clearly presented via the Skills Lab website (at least 91,000 views annually)?

• What will happen to the expertise built up over the past nine years through the nearly 20,000 coaching sessions that have been conducted at the Skills Lab, through which we see what students are and are not able of, where study and writing problems arise and how to mitigate them? Expertise that has been further developed through intensive collaborations with colleagues from Educational Development & Training, study advisors, tutors, lecturers and thesis supervisors. Expertise that is also in demand when developing the language policy and the Wet Internationalisering in Balans (WIB), which imposes obligations on the university to promote students' language and communication competences.

• What will Utrecht University lose if the Skills Lab disappears? Not only an effective, efficient and low-threshold way to really help students with their writing and studying because they are given strategies for sustainable, long-term growth and learning. UU will also lose a leading figurehead that is an example and inspiration to institutions in the whole of the Netherlands and Flanders for how to set up and run an effective academic writing and study centre, where student coaches (peer tutors) use non-directive coaching to help other students develop into critical readers and writers who can manage their own study behaviour.

Finally, what do we gain? The direct costs for the Skills Lab (2.5fte and a pool of student coaches) can be eliminated. Nevertheless: it will lead to new costs. Teachers will spend more time supervising their students, students will study longer and/or leave the university without a degree. Student psychologists are also going to be busier; after all, study coaching at the Skills Lab was started to reduce the unsustainable pressure on student psychologists. Skills Lab is an essential link in the entire support chain at Utrecht University, and its breakup will also be felt financially.

All in all, we cannot but conclude that this cancelling the funding for the Skills Lab is an unwise decision. Do you agree? Sign this petition. Thank you on behalf of the entire Skills Lab team. 

This op-ed was submitted by Joy de Jong, Coordinator Skills Lab.  The views expressed above belong to the author alone and do not necessarily represent DUB's point of view.