Signing up for a course just before it starts should be possible, shouldn’t it? Not at the faculty where columnist Mirte Brouwer studies. She argues for greater flexibility.
It is September and I have just started my new courses. Courses for which I had to register last spring. The IDE Faculty requires you to sign up in May for the next academic year’s first semester courses. You read that right: in May 2024, I had to decide which exams I wanted to take in January 2025.
I wasn’t really thinking about which courses I wanted to take in the fall when, at the end of April, the first warning emails landed in my inbox, urging me to decide quickly – on pain of an unplanned gap semester. The faculty is strict with students who miss the registration deadline, and in general they won’t be admitted to the courses. Exceptions can be made if exceptional circumstances prevented you from registering, such as illness, an accident, a disability, mental health challenges, or personal issues at home. But in all other cases, you’re out of luck.
In the first year of my master’s, I unexpectedly had extra time to study, so I wanted to follow an extra course. The timing was perfect: the new courses were just starting, so I could join at the start. At least in theory. In practice, I was not admitted. I should have anticipated the situation six months in advance and enrolled then. Which kind of goes against the idea of ‘unexpected’.
If other faculties can organise their courses based on estimates, perhaps IDE could do the same
My experiences at the Free University of Amsterdam show that there are other options. There, I can sign up or drop courses up to the end of the first week of classes. That creates space. Space to take an extra course if it turns out to fit my schedule. Space to choose a course that better aligns with my thesis topic. Space to do a follow-up course in Q2 if I find the professor inspiring in Q1.
Incidentally, IDE seems to be one of the few faculties with such early deadlines – along with the Faculty of Architecture. Course registration at ME closes two weeks before the start of the semester. At EEMCS, they don’t even open until two weeks before the semester begins. If you realize during the first lecture that you’re not registered, you can easily correct that. I suspect that, when planning courses, these faculties estimate how many students will take a course according to the number of enrolled students combined with data from previous years. If these faculties can organise their courses based on estimates, perhaps IDE could do the same.
If registration deadlines close a little closer to the start of classes, say a few weeks before, it offers students flexibility. This also fits with TU Delft’s vision of teaching students how to adapt to a changing world. Adjustable scheduling and adapting to new circumstances are crucial in this. A more flexible deadline for course registration, as is already common at other faculties and universities, gives students space.
Mirte Brouwer is a master’s student in Industrial Design Engineering at TU Delft and a master’s student in Dutch Literature and Literary studies at VU University Amsterdam.
Do you have a question or comment about this article?
m.c.brouwer@student.tudelft.nl
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