Number of no-shows on exams too high

The number of no-shows on midterms should be lowered. Some midterms have a no-show percentage of eighty percent. The main reason for this high percentage is that many students – at the time of registering for a resit – have not yet received the result of their first exam. Student Services has come with a proposal on how to deal with no-shows. ( this article is updated, see below)

That is found in the final report of the workgroup Education support, appointed by the university in consideration of the financial cuts. Students are not able to unsubscribe for exams.

The workgroup believes that an increased efficiency can be achieved if students can unsubscribe before the exam, professors publish the grades within a set time and a penalty will be given for no-shows. This penalty might be a fine or a missed examination opportunity. With a new schedule system (Exam Scheduler) students will be able to unsubscribe for an exam, three weeks before it takes place.

The workgroup also reviewed the exam-supervisors. A more central organization of exams and supervising might also mean an increased efficiency. An exception is the law faculty, which organizes their own exam-supervisors, mainly consisting of teachers. The staff group in the University Council fears this might mean an overload for teachers. In a meeting of the commission Education and Research (O&O), rector magnificus Philip Eijlander said: “The faculty of law thinks they have a cheaper solution. Surveillance is also one of the cuts in the budget there.”

Another workgroup reviewed the possibilities for increasing the efficiency in research support, for example in winning research subsidies. “At the moment, the subsidy support is not optimally invested. In general, the workgroup notes more investments should be made in subsidy support. Faculties should be able to determine their own policies in this matter. However, if a faculty decides not to fulfill some tasks, it cannot mean these tasks will be taken over centrally,” states the workgroup in its report.

The proposals will be developed further in the coming time.

Update: This article is based on: “Terugdringen No Shows bij (speciale) tentamens”. This proposal of Student Services was drawn back before the Ucouncil, because there was a miscalculation in the report. The software for also needs to be adjusted, so the expectation is that this measurements are not ready before 2013-2014.  

_Advertentie.