‘Give new students a good start’

‘Give new students a good start’

In one city the introduction week is almost entirely digital, in another freshmen can at least do a bicycle tour through the city. Give all freshmen a good start, say student organisations LSVb and ISO. This academic year will be different from other years. The introduction weeks will largely happen online and the education will not be quite the same as before. Much will have to be done remotely. No wonder the national interest groups representing students (LSVb and ISO) are watching how universities cope. They fear that first-year students will drop out early if they are not given a ‘soft landing’. 

That is why a series of recommendations (in Dutch) are being circulated today. ‘Educate students inside the institution’ is one of the tips, as is ‘make sure they know where to turn if they run into problems’. It is also important that first-year students get to know their fellow students and feel at home in the city.

Educational institutions have been working for months on the question of how many students are allowed in their classrooms, what the schedules will be, and how the introduction week can be corona-proof. But there is something else that the student organisations want to achieve with their call: politics. The elections are coming up and they want the next coalition to spend more on higher education. Higher education has suffered structural cutbacks for years, says Freya Chiappino, Vice President of the National Student Union LSVb. As a result, there was little room to absorb the consequences of the corona crisis. “We now see what a loss that is.”  (HOP, Bas Belleman)