High grades, that is what cum laude is all about. Most study programmes require an average mark of at least eight out of ten and for instance, never having gotten a grade lower than seven. In the case of programmatic assessment (common in the master’s programmes for some time, and since September 2022, at the start of the new curriculum, also introduced in the bachelor’s programmes) a grade is hardly ever given. Students receive feedback on competences and skills and work on the basis of that. All this is recorded in a portfolio. At the end of the year, a committee assesses whether the student has developed sufficiently to proceed to the next year.
Recording not-so-good achievements – and the subsequent learning experience – in the portfolio is essential for programmatic assessment and clashes with the idea that a high grade is equal to being the best, says Roger Rennenberg, programme director of Medicine. That is why this discussion has also come up in other study programmes that use the same assessment system. The Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam took the lead last year and dispensed with cum laude in the master’s of Medicine.
But how can good students then distinguish themselves, the student fraction of council wondered. And will Maastricht graduates be at a disadvantage in the selection for a follow-up study programme if they can’t present a cum laude distinction or some other form of commendation?
As far as Rennenberg is concerned, they don’t need to worry about that. “I have discussed this with educators of follow-up study programmes and 99 per cent says it won’t make a difference,” he says on the telephone. “High grades for exams say something about one particular competence: gathering knowledge. In jobs or within the follow-up study programme, we are looking for candidates with a variety of capacities. Moreover, a – admittedly old – thesis on this subject shows that students who graduate cum laude do not get better positions or make more money later on than those with a lower average.”
Feedback
Despite this, gaining high grades is important to students, Rennenberg has noticed. “They influence each other. Even within programmatic assessment, we have seen that some students go looking for supervisors who are more likely to give a ‘good’. That is not the idea at all, it is more valuable to students to also hear what they didn’t do so well. We are working hard at preventing portfolios with only selectively chosen ‘good’ assessments. Supervisors are given training, there are ‘rubricks’ – forms – to support uniform grading and we have sessions in which we agree on what we feel qualifies for ‘sufficient’, ‘good’ or ‘very good’. Supervisors who nevertheless only give high marks are called to account. Fortunately, there are not many.”
And what about students who go abroad for a master’s? Are grades not important there as well? “That hasn’t happened in the past ten years, the bachelor’s and master’s of Medicine are one study programme. It is possible that someone wants to do a different master’s abroad with certain admission requirements like a high average grade. In that case, we will take a closer look at the portfolio and add a written explanation in addition to an average grade from just the cognitive tests as is usually asked for abroad. All to help the student as much as possible.”
Competition
Some fear that students will try to find something else to compete with each other, as appears from the proposal that is being discussed in the council. Rennenberg: “It’s impossible to completely prevent it. Before another myth is born, I would like to emphasise that a scientific publication is not a requirement for a place in a study programme to become a specialist. Again, that only says something about one single competence. As far as extracurricular activities are concerned: it's certainly not mandatory but I'm not opposed to every student having a side job with social interest like volunteering in health care or having a job in the nursing home, you can learn a lot from that in many different competencies."