Universities can't exclude students with poor grades from course lottery

Higher education courses will not get the option to exclude students who graduated with low grades from the lottery, Education Minister Robbert Dijkgraaf said. It seemed to be an option when an amendment proposed by the VVD received support from a majority in parliament to the dissatisfaction of the D66 and left-wing opposition parties. But Dijkgraaf said that the only condition programs could set is to ask students to make an effort, like participating in an open day.

On Tuesday, the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament, will vote on the law to make the student lottery possible again. The practice was banned in 2017, and courses could only select students based on specific requirements, like high grades, a letter of motivation, or by having them take a test. According to Dijkgraaf, that led to inequality, for example, because highly educated parents could better help their children prepare for these requirements.

In an earlier debate, the VVD was less than enthusiastic about the lottery. The party called it unfair to students who try hard. The VVD, therefore, submitted an amendment to add another option: after a selection procedure, study programs can immediately admit a group, reject a group, and allow the rest to participate in a lottery.

Minister Dijkgraaf is against the amendment but has to implement it because of the parliamentary majority. He wants to do this only by giving study programs the option of refusing students from the lottery if they do not meet a “best efforts obligation,” for example, by not going to an open day. The Minister does not want to refuse students based on grades.

Universities of the Netherlands (UNL) and the Dutch Federation of University Medical Centers (NFU) have informed DIjkgraaf by letter that they’re on his side of the argument. These interest groups represent the majority of study programs that students select in advance, such as medical courses.

Parliament was actually supposed to vote on the bill two weeks ago. But the vote was postponed at the request of the PvdA and GroenLinks when the VVD amendment got majority support. The parties thought the change was drastic enough that they needed more time to consider whether they would vote in favor of the bill.