Quality of Humanities theses declining at Vrije Universiteit: study

The quality of theses written in the Humanities Department of the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam is declining at a rapid rate, according to a study by the university newspaper Advalvas, the Volkskrant reports. Advalvas took 27 PhD and Master's theses from the period 1998 to 2014 - nine each for the fields art history, history and English - that got a score of 9 or higher, meaning that the students who wrote them were among the top of their class. These theses were made anonymous - the names of the students were removed, as were details of the years in which they were published and what score they were given. The theses were then given to professor emeritus in the relevant fields for evaluation. The results were somewhat alarming. According to the new scores allocated by the professors, the oldest papers - between 1998 and 2003 - were the best, with an average score of 8.1. The theses up until 2007 receive an average of 7.8. And the latest theses only scored 6.6. Even more telling, no theses after 2006 appear in the top half of the new rankings. And the four worst theses were all written after 2011. "The quality of the theses decreased significantly in recent years", Advalvas concludes. "A 9 is not a 9 anymore."