Universities' failing policies

By Tessel Wijne

There has been a lot of talk about the accessibility of education over the past year. With the introduction of the loan system, which DWARS opposed, the discussion between administrators, politicians and students on accessibility started. Many outsiders and non-students dared to make the simple argument that studying is "an investment in yourself" and that the several tens of thousands of euros of study debt that young people accumulate are a small detail in the afterlife. For us students, it is yet another measure that has nothing to do with what we should all want: giving students several years to develop from young person to adult.

Last year, besides the protests against the abolition of the Stufi, there was also the flooding bucket at the UvA with the occupation of the Maagdenhuis. Enough has been written about both topics. It was also for this reason that I threw my column on education into the trash a few weeks ago, a digital bin for clarity.

This morning, however, I read something I had heard about several months ago but which I found so bizarre that I didn't want to think much about it. An article in the Volkskrant on 2 September revealed that it has become the practice of master's programmes not to accept students with a 'six' on their master's course, even though the student has successfully completed the preparatory bachelor.

As a young person who is active within a PJO but also does a full-time study alongside it, and again is a first-year, I feel quite offended by this kind of oddity. I wonder if it is fair to bar young people who may not yet be 21 from a master's degree because they did not get a 7 average in their bachelor's degree. After all, at 18, you have nowhere near the ability to take in the dull material that comes with university studies as someone two years older.

I myself have followed an odd path and am starting a new bachelor's degree at 20. I am familiar with the pitfalls of university studies, so I already have an edge over my fellow shysters. On top of that, in addition to the 40 hours I spend on average per week on my studies, I also have a nice list of side activities. At the time of writing, for instance, I am still chairman of the most beautiful DWARS department in the country. I can't deny that this takes up quite a lot of my time each week, and it is a fact that I am often busy with DWARS during the week with exams. However, I do this to develop myself in all areas, this does mean that my grades are sometimes not as high as they could be if I was studying 60 hours a week. Does this mean that this makes me less suitable to do a master's degree? Because of the wide variety of activities that a proportion of young people do, they not only develop themselves into young people with knowledge within a field but also into adults. Adults who are able to apply the knowledge they have gained during their studies in what I call for a moment the 'big people's world'. Last year, I did a management degree that was as boring as it sounds. However, I am sure that through my experiences within DWARS, I gained more management 'skills' than I would learn in those three years of undergraduate studies. Likewise, I think someone with broad political experience has more potential to complete a political science master's because that person has worked in the field he or she is studying. Someone who happened to be good at memorising a book and got an 8 average may also possess these qualities but has shown them even less.

My point is that universities should go back to creating an environment where students who arrive as children during their induction week leave the place a few years later as developed adults. After all, we are not getting anywhere with people who can all memorise a book but then have no idea how to apply the knowledge. I therefore find it a serious matter that students who have developed enormously but do not have a 7 average are barred from the master's that their bachelor's should prepare them for. After all, it is strange that a university does not trust the quality of their own bachelor and that students then bear the brunt of this.

And for those interested, no I did not get my P with an 8, nor did I get it with a 'six'. It's up to you guys to fill in what I average, all I can tell you in advance is that I know I could never have learnt what a nearly year of board work taught me from a book.