Faculty council: FEB wait for study advisers should be shorter
FEB wait for study advisers should be shorter
Door Thijs Fens
By Thijs Fens
‘Students are made to wait three or even four weeks before they can get an appointment’, says Reender Reenders, faction chair with De Vrije Student. After complaints, his party investigated. They found that for nineteen weeks out of the academic year, the average wait time is just under three weeks. ‘That’s only the average; the maximum wait can be much longer’, says Reenders.
Difficult to plan
A memo by Student Support, which was discussed during last week’s faculty council meeting because of Reenders’ questions, says that students aren’t sufficiently available for appointments, among other things. ‘But planning classes is also difficult. I get the feeling that the faculty is trying to make the problem look smaller than it is.’
But the board says it’s not that simple. Vice dean Manda Broekhuis knows that students don’t always pick the first available time slot because they aren’t available, and sometimes deliberately select a later time slot, which makes it look like the wait time (between making an appointment and the appointment itself) is longer. ‘But that’s the students’ choice, which changes things.’
Reenders was also told that student could send an e-mail or phone the adviser. ‘But that’s not entirely fair. Also, the phone line is only for quick questions.’ Reenders says this doesn’t solve real problems.
Improvements
Any e-mails sent go to the Student Support account and not to study advisers directly. The board acknowledges that there’s room for improvement here and will look into whether they can add the study advisers’ e-mail addresses to their website.
Reenders points out that the number of students at the faculty has increased, while the number of study advisers hasn’t. ‘It’s no wonder, really.’
If it’s up to the faculty council, the maximum wait time will become ten days. The board said they’d start thinking about a plan of attack to shorten the wait times.