Photo: Shutterstock Eight Dutch student unions have urgently petitioned their university boards to scrap the BSA for this academic year. The BSA is a minimum number of credits that first-year Bachelor’s students must obtain in order to pass into the second year. With its requirement of 36 out of 60 possible credits, Wageningen has the lowest BSA in the Netherlands.
The student union Student Alliance Wageningen (SAW) wrote to WUR. SAW chair Gijs Rotteveel: ‘Normally speaking the BSA at WUR is very reasonable, but not this year.’ SAW has heard from students who are worried about having to take longer over their degree, and about the work pressure they are under. ‘We think it’s important that the university acknowledges and addresses these problems. Scrapping the BSA would show that WUR appreciates the efforts of students in these difficult circumstances.’
Filter
But WUR is sticking to its guns on the BSA. Dean of Education Arnold Bregt: ‘Almost all the education has been able to keep going, the programme is easy to follow, and it is not a disaster if you miss the odd class. And of course we’ll look at individual problem cases. It’s always possible there are exceptional circumstances.’
According to Bregt, the BSA has its advantages. ‘I have taught quite a lot myself. If students are struggling, it’s not nice for the students or the teachers. It takes up a lot of the teacher’s time, and that is at the expense of the time the teacher can give to the rest of the students. The BSA is a kind of extra filter at the end of the first year, to pick out students who are just not in the right place.’