Students said they wanted to start working on plants in the winter. Photo Guy Ackermans Although the individual courses are updated every year, it was some time since the degree programme as a whole had been reviewed, says programme director Anja Kuipers. ‘The degree always gets a good evaluation, but we want to be able to guarantee that high quality in the future too.’
Kuipers: ‘This redesign has clarified the educational pathways, in terms of both knowledge and skills, and has led to a better fit between the content of the individual courses. The degree programme as a whole is better as a result.’ One of the changes is the addition of a compulsory Data Science course in the second year. ‘That subject had previously been optional. But learning how to deal with large amounts of data is so important these days that it needs to be part of the basic programme.’ The new course is currently being developed and will be given for the first time next academic year.
When they were carrying out the redesign, the feedback from students was that they didn’t do enough with plants during the winter of the first year, says Kuipers. ‘That winter was mainly about theory and working in the lab. Obviously that knowledge is important, but the students are eager to get to work on plants. That’s why we have introduced a new course that recurs throughout the first year, with assignments in which students go outdoors to investigate the characteristics of plants and perform other tasks.’ In addition, students thought there were too many short courses in the old programme (and consequently too many exams). ‘That is also something we have changed.’
Step by step
Not everything needed altering, says Kuipers. ‘We have various courses where the students learn step by step how to set up a research project, to make sure they are well prepared when they start on their thesis in the third year. Both teachers and students are happy with that educational pathway, so we didn’t change anything there.’
The new-style first year is being implemented this academic year, followed by the revised second year from next September and the redesigned third year in the 2026-2027 academic year. Budget has also been made available for a redesign of the Master’s programmes of Plant Sciences and Plant Biotechnology. ‘We hope to start on those redesign processes in the autumn.’
