Students prefer a master elsewhere
Help, the uni is leaking!
Door Rob van der Wal
By Rob van der Wal
Rob van der Wal
We’re all the way at the bottom: there is no other Dutch university that has as few master students transferring in from other higher education institutes as the UG. To be more exact: the number at the UG is 31 percent, with the national average being 48 percent. The Wageningen University & Research even manages to draw in 64 percent new master students.
At the same time, Groningen students leave for other universities en masse after getting their bachelor’s degree: just 55 percent choose to do their master programme here.
That is a problem, because it means a lack of students for the smaller master tracks in particular. Especially now the number of new bachelor students is decreasing at the UG, with the number of master students dropping even faster.
It’s not in keeping with the national trend. While an increasing number of bachelor students, especially those studying in the Randstad, chose a different university for their master programme, the percentages in Groningen are dropping. Overarching organisation Universities of the Netherlands has data on this trend.
What’s behind this? And what can the UG do to become more attractive to master students?
More internationals
‘The main reason for the phenomenon is that the UG has an ever larger number of international students’, says university spokesperson Sophie Dannenburg-Douwes. They’re less inclined to stay at the same institute after finishing their bachelor. Looking at the numbers, it’s clear: 64 percent of Dutch bachelor students stay at the UG, while for non-EU students, that number is at 22 percent.
We’re losing students to the technical universities
But that’s not the only reason. The University of Amsterdam and Maastricht University both have a higher percentage of international students – 32 and 60 respectively, as opposed to the UG’s 27 – but they’ve managed to retain them better. That means their total internal throughput is still higher than at the UG.
A new, UG-wide task force is currently looking into the choke points for both the throughput from the bachelors to the masters and the master admission process, but it’s too early to say anything. The university itself proposes appointing agents in various countries to recruit master’s students for all faculties on a commission basis. Bachelor’s students will mainly be recruited for shortage sectors – healthcare, engineering, and education. Additionally, the programme pages on the UG website will be improved.
Science faculty
In the meantime, the Faculty of Science and Engineering (FSE), one of the faculties with the highest outflow and the lowest inflow, is trying to find its own answers.
The science faculty is in the final stages of a project that tracks where students go after their bachelor and why. They distributed questionnaires among recent graduates and organised panels with bachelor and master students, says Berdien Kooistra-Akse, director at the School of Science and Engineering who is jointly responsible for education at the faculty.
‘Our throughput really isn’t all that bad if you compare it to the University of Twente, for instance, which is a regional university as well, or the University of Utrecht’, she says. 55 percent of FSE students stay at the UG for a master, which 58 percent of Twente students do.
Nevertheless, there’s reason enough to look into it. ‘We’re losing bachelor students to the technical universities when we’d like to keep them here. The FSE master programmes have the room for that kind of inflow.’
Bachelor-before-master rule
The Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences (BSS) is also seeing many students leave, when they’d like them to be more interested in their master programmes, says vice-dean of education Hilda Amsing. There are a few English master tracks in the department of pedagogical and educational sciences that enrol very few students: approximately forty a year.
When they graduate, students feel like the world is at their feet
At pedagogical and educational sciences, 47 percent of bachelor students decide to do a master at a different university or don’t continue their studies at all. At the department of psychology, this number is at 53 percent. Amsing says this is high, and they’re not getting many outside students in return. ‘It’s probably due to the labour market, which is much bigger in the Randstad, or to how attractive studying there is.’
The way the bachelors and master are structured isn’t helping, she says, referring to the re-introduction of the bachelor-before-master rule, which forces students to finish their bachelor before they can start a master programme. ‘When they graduate, students feel like the world is at their feet. They can choose to go wherever they want, and the programmes in the Randstad are attractive to Groningen students.’
To prevent students from leaving, the UG initially decided to forego the bachelor-before-master rule. But this rule became mandatory across the country in 2012.
Labour market
At the Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) they’re also losing students to the Randstad. Approximately 40 percent of students leave, with only 20 percent of master students coming in from other universities. ‘Our bachelor programmes are fairly broad, which makes it easy for students to leave for other universities’, says vice-dean of education Manda Broekhuis.
FEB students, and particularly internationals who are attached to their living space, are also worried about finding a job in the North. The faculty is considering organising special recruitment days for study associations, to emphasise the business opportunities in the North.
Less English
BSS hopes to make certain English master tracks more attractive by teaching them in Dutch, instead. ‘Some of our bachelor students have said that the master tracks’ working language is a deterrent’, says Amsing. ‘Switching to Dutch will also make them more attractive to students from universities of applied sciences who’ve finished their pre-master.’
Some students say that the master tracks’ working language is a deterrent
She acknowledges that the change will likely lose them international students. ‘The faculty council has been critical of the decision. But the number of internationals taking these masters is relatively small.’ At one track, four out of the total of fifteen students are international. These low numbers in general are a threat to the track’s continued existence.
At the same time, the largest master programme with the department of pedagogy, special needs education, is at risk of running out of internships. ‘If we switch to Dutch, those smaller master programmes will become more attractive to Dutch students’, Amsing expects. ‘We’ll get more Dutch students in return, and create more room in the special needs education master.’ There will be at least two English pedagogy master tracks left, while two others will switch to Dutch.
Facilities
FSE is also taking action, says Kooistra-Akse. ‘We’re looking into designing the pre-masters in such a way that admission into the master becomes easier.’ This will make it clearer for students from universities of applied sciences whether they can start their master. The faculty is also working on putting more emphasis on their facilities, such as the engineering lab at the Feringa Building, 3D printers, and the use of robot dogs in programming courses.
‘But we can do better when it comes to technological facilities’, she says. ‘The students have said so in their questionnaire responses. So we’re currently looking into what else we can do.’ One option is to set up a special innovation space outfitted with equipment that students can use.
The science faculty also wants to inventory job opportunities in the region ‘Students think there aren’t enough technical jobs in the region and that they have to move to the Randstad to find work. We already know there’s a contingent of alumni working in the region, but we want to tell our students that they need more graduates.’
High throughput at law faculty
The Faculty of Law actually has a high throughput of students: 80 percent of students finishing up their Dutch bachelor here go on to do a Dutch master track at the UG as well.
They make up 75 percent of the total. The other 25 percent consists mostly of students from universities of applied sciences. ‘The number of students with a law bachelor from a different university is quite low’, says educational director Jaap Dijkstra.
He can’t say he particularly minds. ‘I wouldn’t advise my students to do their master at a different university. You run the risk of the programme not matching up to your bachelor, or an overlap between your bachelor and their master courses.’ Other law faculties across the country have similar numbers, he says.
English bachelor
It’s a different story at the English bachelor: approximately 35 to 40 percent of bachelor students go on to do a master at the UG. A third of them leave for a different Dutch university, while the rest go abroad. ‘They move on to top programmes at Cambridge, Oxford, or the Sorbonne.’
Dijkstra isn’t surprised by these numbers. ‘There’s a much greater variety of English masters, and there’s a closer connection between the English bachelor and master programmes. It’s up to us to retain the not-quite top students and convince them to do their master here.
Dijkstra says they don’t have to lure in students with niche-interest programmes. ‘It’s the quality of our master programmes that draws students in.’