First-year students did ‘straight-up poorly’ in this academic year’s first block. They also barely felt connected to the rest of the academic community.
This was the result of the evaluation of a survey set out by the UG’s Education Strategy Committee. This committee regularly assesses the education at the UG, as well as student and lecturer well-being.
The survey on this year’s first block shows that first-year students did particularly poorly. They usually manage to get ten ECTS in the first block, but this year, the average was eight. The results from senior students in this block were not included in the report.
Not connected
‘There is no clear explanation’, the committee writes. However, they do have an inkling: first-year students seem to be lacking a sense of belonging. They don’t feel connected to the rest of the academic community.
The committee has proposed a work group consisting of students and academics be created by next academic year at the latest. This group could then come up with ways to boost this sense of belonging.
Students’ general well-being during the first block was also sub-optimal. On average, students scored 45 out of 100, even when society was ‘more or less’ open again and classes were taught ‘more or less’ normally. Under normal circumstances, the average Dutch person scores 65 out of 100.