Those who wish to enroll in one of the two-year master programmes in human movement sciences or sport sciences next academic year must first undergo a selection process. This is due to the current high number of students.
From now on, only forty students will be admitted to human movement sciences and twenty-five to sport sciences. That makes a total of sixty-five, whereas this year there are ninety prospective students. The selection will be based on CV, motivation letter, and an assignment.
‘We want to provide more personal attention’, explains programme leader Helco van Keeken. ‘Furthermore, the lower number of students works better for our teaching staff. It will allow them to continue to conduct research alongside teaching.’
Lower personnel costs
Budgetary reasons also play a role: the second year of the master programme is currently not funded by the government, so the department bears the costs itself. A lower number of students means lower personnel costs.
The current enrollment of ninety students is exceptionally high. Before the applications started to increase two years ago, the master programme often had sixty to sixty-five students, says Van Keeken.
Crowded elective courses
Student council member Lisa van Dolder from the medical faculty hopes that this will also solve another problem: students often have to look outside the programme for the two elective courses in the third block due to lack of space in the offerings. ‘It’s almost becoming an obligation rather than a choice to take those courses elsewhere’, she says.
According to Van Keeken, however, it’s not that bad. ‘If you assume that everyone wants to take all elective courses within the master programmes, then it’s a bit tight. But students also take courses from other faculties and sometimes do academic projects in our department.’
He says there is no question of potential study delays due to a shortage of places in elective courses. ‘But reducing the number of students from ninety to sixty-five will make everything a little less tight.’