Weekend exams for psychology

The next batch of psychology students will have to start taking exams on Friday nights and on Saturdays. There aren’t enough lecturers, class rooms or exam rooms available.
By Menno van der Meer / translation by christien boomsma

The board of the Faculty of Social Sciences expects that evening and weekend exams will be necessary until the expansion of the Aletta Jacobs hall is finished. But it won’t be done before the new academic year starts, which means available space is limited. ‘It’s inevitable that we’ll be scheduling exams at less than ideal time’, says managing director Rita Landeweerd.

Initially, the board of directors wanted to schedule four exams a day, increasing the number from three. This would shorten the time students had to finish their exams from three to two hours. But the faculties did not agree to that proposal, says Landeweerd.

This solution, with exams being scheduled at unusual times, is a better one, she thinks. ‘I don’t think we should cram the exams into two hours. It would have been detrimental to the exams’ quality.’

Class between five and seven

The new batch of students will also have to attend classes between five and seven. Landeweerd wants to limit classes at these hours as much as possible and spread them out over different groups of students.

‘We know that we have a large number of enrolments. We are trying to facilitate the new students as much as possible.’  That means using classrooms and lecturers in the evening. A difficult problem to solve. ‘We have had intensive talks with the managers of psychology and the schedulers.’

Bothersome

Jorien Vugteveen, member of the personnel faction, asked lecturers how they felt about the developments. ‘They think it’s unfortunate, but they do understand. They hope this is just a temporary solution.’

Lisanne Boschloo, of the Partij Student Belangen (Student Interest Party), calls the situation ‘bothersome’. She hopes students will be told ahead of time whether they have an exam or class at unusual hours. ‘At least then we can plan for it.’

Dutch

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