Photo Shutterstock A number of WUR lecturers are worried that they will no longer have summer holidays as of 2020. The reason: the Board wants to relocate the retakes to an earlier time during summer holiday.
The university’s Executive Board intends to move the last retakes from August to the second and third weeks of July. In the proposal, lecturers would be given fifteen days to correct the exams and hand in the grades. This proposal has caused some agitation among several lecturers.
Martine Reij (lecturer Food Microbiology): ‘This means we will have to hand in the grades in the middle of our summer holiday. My colleagues and I are very concerned about the consequences for lecturers and administrative assistants. We would no longer have any vacation.’
The lecturers also fear that the proposed change will have consequences for the correction time that they receive in term 6. Lecturers would then have to correct the exams and submit grades within five days, instead of the current ten.
What is striking is that the Board’s proposal is intended to allow a continuous holiday period for students and staff, says university spokesperson Simon Vink. The Student Council (approval) and the programme committees (advice) are examining the proposal. For the time being, the Executive Board abstains from any comments and awaits the advice and discussions that the student council and programme committees will bring.
Alternative
Reij realises that the relocation could be beneficial for students, as they would not have to learn for retakes during their holidays. ‘But if the retakes are moved to July, at least give the lecturers until the end of August to submit the grades. That would allow both lecturers and students to go on holiday.’
