Newsletter September 2016

Master selection
During the past six months, Lijst Calimero has been working on the topic master selection and has carefully observed all developments on this issue. After several months of uncertainty, a proposed framework to establish a centralized policy on masterselection has been discussed among the university faculties last month. It turned out that the proposal did not get enough support. Based on that, the Board of Directors decided that master selection will not be implemented at a central level. This does not mean that the University of Groningen will not, or cannot, select on its prospective students anymore. The faculties have become responsible for future admission criteria and is therefore able to impose additional requirements for prospective students. Although we believe that faculties will have more experience to assess whether they want to select for their master programs, it is of great importance that the quality and accessibility of degree programs at the University of Groningen are guaranteed. Therefore, we will keep a close eye on developments within the faculties and we hope that faculty councils will be sufficiently involved in this issue.

BSA and P-in-2
The letter written by minister Bussemaker brought an end to the P-in-2 policy at the University of Groningen. This letter and a possible new policy on the BSA were also discussed in the last University Council meeting. The P-in-2 policy will be ended immediately and the BSA of 45 ECTS will remain in place.
Lijst Calimero took the opportunity to ask the Board of Directors if they can guarantee that the abolishment of the P-in-2 policy will not lead to an increase of the BSA in the future. Furthermore, we asked the Board of Directors if there will be additional requirements concerning study results in the future.
The Board of Directors could guarantee that in the upcoming two years the BSA will not be altered but they were unable to guarantee that for years after that. As a reason for this, the Board of Directors pointed out that abolishing the P-in-2 policy might lead to later drop outs when students are repeatedly unable to pass certain difficult but essential courses.
We see the risk pointed out by the board and therefore will have a close eye on the BSA policy and possible consequences. If the BSA policy leads to higher dropout rates in later years, Lijst Calimero will cooperate in finding solutions. Furthermore, our opinion is that the BSA of 45 ECTS can under no circumstances be increased. As a student party in the University Council we have voting right on alterations of the BSA and future alterations would require our consent.

International Housing
During the last University Council meeting, the personnel faction (PF) and Lijst Calimero both had some questions concerning the problematic housing situation of international students. The PF had a question about the transition between current exchange students and prospective exchange students that will arrive in February. The current students have a contract at the SSH for the first semester, which ends only on the 3rd of February 2017. There contracts, however, end on the 31st of January 2017, when also the new students arrive. Therefore, students will effectively have to move to hotels during the exam periods. The CvB promised to look into the issue with the SSH.
Lijst Calimero pointed out that the CvB changed their opinion on the current housing situation of international students.
At last, we asked what the plans of the university are to prevent such situations from happening in the future. In the long term, the housing situation is expected to change, according to the CvB. The reasons for the problematic situation of students not able to find housing were that this year enrollments were extraordinary high and older houses were closed down. In the future, the available housing space provided by the SSH is expected to expand so that the situation can get better. However, the CvB states that this is a process of several years so that no quick remedy can be expected.
Unsatisfied with this answer, Lijst Calimero pointed out that a large share of students not being able to find appropriate housing also lack information about local housing markets and have wrong expectations.
Lijst Calimero will therefore take further steps to reduce the informational deficit in the communication with prospective students and review the contract between the university and the SSH.

Hazings
In the previous University Council meeting the recent incidents that happend in the student association Vindicat Atque Polit, were discussed. The board of directors annouced that the University of Gronigen, the Hanzehogeschool, and the municipality of Groningen want to abolish all hazing. The board of directors plead for a cultural change in student associations that have hazings.
We regret last week’s incidents and think that physical and mental violence during hazings is unacceptable and needs to be prevented in the future. However, Lijst Calimero does not support the intention of the RUG to abolish all hazings. Dictating a cultural change from above is lot in line with the essence of the student society here in Groningen: student associations are created by and for students and therefpre need to keep their independence and identity. The decision to abolsih all hazings will not lead to the actual goal of regulating hazings and preventing physical and mental violence.
During the University Council meeting we asked the board of directors to talk to and to cooperate with student association when working towards a safer student cultuure in which the usage of mental and physical violence does no longer exist. We also call upon all student associations to critically look at there on introduction times and to distance themselves from violence and contract that forbid participants to talk about possible incidents.
Lijst Calimero will continue talking to the board of directors to participate in the development o f an external committee for supervision of introduction times so that student associations keep their independence and therefore also responsibility concerning introduction times.

Yantai
In September the business case Yantai and an added risk management document were discussed during the University Council meeting. Once again,we pointed out that the quality of education, support from students and staff for the plan and transparent communication about the plan are important for Lijst Calimero. We emphasized that insufficient support from the academic community and in particular, from staf members of the involved faculties is a great risk for the succes of the project. We encouraged the Board of Directors to investigate once more, if there really is sufficient support. This will be an important aspect in our consideration to advise positively or negatively concerning the go/no-go moment, which is expected to take place in October. Until then, we will remain in close contact with the involved faculty councils and we look forward to the extra consultation of the councils about Yantai, which will also take place next month. Finally, the business case is no longer confidential which means that you can send a request to the registrar of the council to gain access to this document. Contact the registrar via griffier.ur@rug.nl using your student mail.