Central Participation Council declines BSR-experimentationProposal from the Executive Board would be insufficiently thought through
- The Executive Board wants to offer study programmes room for experimentation with regards to the Binding Study Recommendation.
- The Central Participation Council is disappointed with the proposal and wants to continue talking next year.
The differences between the Executive Board (EB) and the Central Participation Council (CPC) about the Binding Study Recommendation (BSR) are entering a new phase. The CPC rejects the EB’s latest proposal with regards to the BSR. Originally the EB wanted to replace the current BSR with an “urgent” study recommendation based on the main phase standard. The CPC rejected this offer after consultation with several different parties. Recently, the EB came with the proposal to offer separate study programmes the possibility to start experimenting with different variants on the BSR. The CPC initially wanted to accept this proposal – but the current proposal isn’t something the CPC can agree with.
The EB proposed that full-time bachelor programmes could start experimenting with a main phase standard of 50 EC. This standard would then be combined with a quality standard with a BSR of no higher than 25 ECs. (In this case students have a few subjects they have to pass, but these subjects cannot exceed 25 ECs). Part time programmes (Bachelor and Associate Degrees) can start experimenting with dropping the BSR altogether. Finally, full-time Associate Degrees could look at the effects of a Binding Qualitative Recommendation consisting of at most 25 ECs. These experiments would be held over a period of two years until the summer of 2021. Study programmes that do not want to participate in these experiments follow the old rules with regards to the BSR. At the same time the EB wrote: “A lot of students and teams find that the BSR norm of 54 ECs is high; a BSR-norm of 45 ECs is considered too low, that is why we chose a BSR norm of 50 ECs.” According to the EB this change will also make sure that there is no difference between the main phase standard used during the experimentation and the standard BSR norm. This is important to show transparency and clarity towards the students.
Furthermore, the EB proposes to expand the amount of groups of students with a different BSR-standard and to uphold a third opportunity to re-do a test if students have 45 ECs. In reaction to this the CPC said: “Following this proposal we cannot accept the proposals as they are presented right now.” The CPC is disappointed with the fact that there has been no consideration with regards to some critical points which has been raised earlier. The changes the EB is headed toward need, according to the CPC, ‘sufficient support’ and also more time to oversee the consequences. The content analysis of the problems the changes may bring aren’t thought through well enough. The CPC takes the stand that the EB’s proposal is extremely unwise. Taking these factors into account the CPC will not agree upon the proposed changes by the EB with regards to the BSR. The CPC concludes that there is not enough time and opportunity to revisit the changes as proposed before the academic year 2019-2020 and suggests to use the coming academic year to come to a thorough plan of measures.
- (MH)
