Dutch higher ed. told to relax binding student advice rules to improve welfare

Minister Robbert Dijkgraaf of Education is relaxing the binding study advice in higher education to give students more time and breathing room. Instead of first-year students having to complete an average of 45 of their 60 credits in the first year to continue studying, Dijkgraaf wants to lower the mandatory credits to 30.

According to Dijkgraaf, relaxing the binding study advice (BSA) will ensure a better balance between study progress and students’ well-being in higher vocational education and university education. It will also give first-year students more time to get used to studying, he believes.

The Dutch government describes the BSA as “a recommendation to either continue or to stop the course.” Depending on the number of credits they obtain, many students receive a BSA at the end of their first year. The government notes that students must have the option of lodging an appeal. “If the recommendation is negative, your school may decide that you have to stop your course. A negative recommendation is given if academic results are not good enough to continue.”

On average, first-year students now have to obtain about 45 of the total 60 credits to proceed to the second year. “The BSA should support students in finding a balance between their well-being and study progress, but the emphasis is now mainly on study progress. As a result, the bar is often set too high in the first year, resulting in too much pressure on the student,” Dijkgraaf said. He, therefore, wants to lower the minimum number of credits achieved in the first year to 30.

“In the first year, you as a student make a broader development and face a lot, such as moving into a dorm, getting used to studying and student life, and standing on your own two feet,” Dijkgraaf said. “That is why I want to adjust the BSA to reduce the performance pressure on students. And if students are not in the right place, they must be helped to make the right choice.”

If a student hasn’t obtained their 60 credits at the end of the second year of study, the higher education institution may decide they have to stop the course and refer the student to another, more suitable program. The same applies to students who obtained less than 30 credits in their first year and have “demonstrably taken insufficient steps in their studies.”

Universities and universities of applied sciences can still decide for themselves whether to use the BSA. They may also have a lower standard.