Illustration Valerie Geelen The new policy’s key goal, to lower work pressure among teaching staff, appears to have been met. Moreover, students appear to take exams more seriously: their first attempts at exams are more successful.
Nelleke Lafeber, policy advisor for Education and Student Affairs, sums up the most important changes in the amended resit policy: ‘The number of exam options for students has been cut back from three times to twice a year, in line with the standard at other universities. The goal was to lower work pressure among teachers and to motivate students to make more of an effort. The number of resit weeks was increased from two to three to better distribute the work pressure over the year. And the last resit week was moved from August to July, making it possible for everyone to enjoy a real summer break.’
That policy was not accepted without a fight. Some students were unhappy about having to relinquish a resit opportunity. However, after good discussions on work pressure among teachers, students who would register for resits but fail to prepare for them or simply not show up because they had the option of trying again later, the WUR Council approved. Under the condition that the new policy was to be evaluated. That evaluation has now been finalised, says Lafeber. ‘Those involved throughout the organisation have been interviewed. From study advisors and deans to programme committees, schedule coordinators, examiners and students. The student council also distributed a survey among students, and Quality and Strategic Information analysed the study data. All this provided us with a complete view of the impact of the new policy.’
Drop in work pressure
According to teachers, work pressure has dropped since the new policy was introduced, Lafeber says. ‘They are particularly happy about the new academic year planning and the way the resit weeks are distributed over the year. This allows them to enjoy a real summer vacation and a real Christmas break. That was often mentioned as a big plus in the open comments.’
Study advisors report that students take their preparations for exams more seriously and also plan better since the new policy was introduced. ‘They now consider more diligently for what exams and resits they want to register’, Lafeber states. The data support this claim. The success rate for a first attempt has increased from 81 to 89 per cent.’
More stress
Still, students are unhappy over the fact that they have one less opportunity to write exams, Lafeber says. ‘There is a little more pressure to pass the exams. If you miss an exam for health reasons, you have only one additional opportunity in that year. I understand students thinking: I would rather have three opportunities than two. However, the increased pass rate shows that students have fewer resits during their studies.’
The evaluation also showed that resits for mandatory courses from a curriculum were sometimes planned at the same moment, Lafeber explains. ‘If you have to resit both, you must choose which course to resit. The student council has discussed this with planning and requested them to be more aware of this issue so that students will be able to resit multiple mandatory courses in the same resit week,’ she says.
Exam committee
Students who experience issues as a result of the new policy, for example, if a resit opportunity for the last course they need to complete in order to graduate, now sometimes reach out to teachers to request an extra resit opportunity. Lafeber: ‘That is a problem for teachers because they must offer all students equal opportunities. Such students may contact the exam committee. It is up to them to decide whether a student is offered an additional opportunity or not.’
All things considered, the new policy seems to have achieved its goals, Lafeber states. ‘Work pressure has dropped, and the success rate has increased.’ And, with that, the ‘resit policy dossier’ is closed for the time being.
