The labour market is not looking too good for academics, hundreds of applicants for one vacancy is normal. It is a matter of standing out before the selection committee, for example by having the designation ‘cum laude’ on your diploma. And then it is hard, writes the master’s graduate, when you have higher grades but contrary to your fellow students elsewhere you don’t receive cum laude because your faculty applies a high threshold.
There is indeed no national arrangement for the awarding of ‘cum laude’ (with honours), the association of universities VSNU informs us. Worse still, there is no university-wide regulation at Maastricht University, it appeared from a comparison of the rules and guidelines that accompany more than 25 Education and Examination Regulations for bachelor’s and master’s programmes. Even though most are largely the same: students have to have an average of eight (the research master’s at psychology requires an 8.5) for their modules. At the Faculty of Law a student may not have a single result below seven, for other studies the lower barrier is a six.
The School of Business and Economics recently eased its regulation on this point. Where the batch of students from 2011-2012 needed a seven to make the grade, for the latest group of bachelor’s and master’s students this is a six. An important argument: to be more in line with the rest of the UM.
Furthermore the thesis must be worth at least an eight (for the research master’s of Science in Cultures of Arts, Science and Technology, and European Studies and the master’s of Arts and Heritage: Policy, Management and Education, this is even an 8.5), just like for the traineeship and the traineeship report. Participating in the first possible round of exams is a must, resits are not allowed.
An exception to this is University College Maastricht. Students there also have to graduate with an average grade of A (which stands for 8 – 8.5), but having done a resit is not a problem. “Here students put together almost their entire programme themselves. We want them to develop their talents as much as possible, to experiment, find out what they are good at and therefore are fearless in their choices. They have to be able to make mistakes,” says Peter Vermeer, chairman of the Examination Committee. Only to add that the best never or hardly ever need to do a resit. On average, 30 to 40 per cent of all UCM students graduate cum laude. A large group, compared to many other programmes at the UM.
Vermeer: “UCM selects the first-year students on their secondary school grades, among other things. Research has shown that this is a good indicator for achievements in academic education. Moreover, our students have a tremendous freedom of choice, as a result of which they can do what interests them.” That stimulates too. At any rate, lecturers at UCM do not give higher marks, he emphasises. “We mainly work with lecturers from other faculties. They indicate that they use their own faculty as the standard when giving grades.”
University College Maastricht is a lot stricter than their colleagues in Leiden. Last year a graduate with an average of 6.5 was given the designation cum laude on his diploma by University College Leiden in The Hague. After protests in the Leiden University Council – other UL studies only giving a cum laude for an 8.5 – the regulation was adapted. Now a student has to have an average of at least a 7.7.
While most studies explain their cum laude regulation in a few lines, the UM Faculty of Medicine needs more space. It is indicated for each year what requirements a student must meet in terms of progress tests, block tests, station tests, internships, scientific participation, and the professional behaviour exam. The requirements are strict because for the past two years only two bachelor’s students and one master’s student received the designation cum laude. Very few, thought the programme committee at Medicine. Upon their request the rules will become less rigid in 2014. Astrid Peters, secretary of the examination committee: “Now, for example, you have to get ‘excellent’ for almost all of your third-year bachelor’s blocks. Next year that will be ‘good’.“