Photographer:Fotograaf: Philip Driessen
Error in KeuzeGids 2011 harms UCM
University College Maastricht did not receive a score of 6.2 - as the KeuzeGids 2011 mistakenly reported just before Christmas - but 7.2, just like the year before. The Executive Board want the editors of the KeuzeGids to publish the correct figures in advertisements in newspapers during the Open Days.
The KeuzeGids editors have already tried to correct their mistake by taking various actions, such as a corrigendum in the copies of the KeuzeGids 2011 that have still to be distributed, a mailing to all contacts of the KeuzeGids, changing the on-line version and posting the correct score on their homepage and universities’ page. It is unclear whether the advertisements that the Executive Board demands, will be published, says Hans Ouwersloot, university policy officer. The two parties are negotiating.
How great is the damage? “That is very difficulty to measure,” explains UCM's dean, Harm Hospers. “But I do think that the college will be affected. A certain image has been created and one can only hope that people actually read the corrigendum. At any rate, this does not help those who are in the process of choosing a study, because it does not give an accurate picture of the University Colleges in the Netherlands.” Hospers and Ouwersloot also point out another error. Amsterdam College – a joint project of the VU University Amsterdam and the University of Amsterdam – is listed twice in the table: in second place as VU University College and in fifth place as UvA College. Ouwersloot: “If you add up their results, Amsterdam College ends in fourth place and Maastricht moves up from fourth to third place.”
Riki Janssen