Psychology bachelor to be offered in English from September 2018
Starting September 2018, the UvA will offer its bachelor programme in Psychology in English. Places on the programme will be limited by a cap.
‘An international classroom will be advantageous to all students,’ says college director Ingmar Visser. ‘Collaborative work with students from different backgrounds and cultures will broaden their professional view.’ He also expects that students will be better prepared for the international labour market. ‘English is the lingua franca of modern day psychological science,’ Visser continues. ‘Virtually all our staff writes articles in English and speaks English with colleagues. Plus we’ll finally be able to put our international staff to better use.’
Student cap
A maximum of 480 students a year will be able to follow the programme from September 2018. Visser thinks that placing a cap on those able to enroll is crucial in order to maintain quality of education. Earlier this year, the Student Council voiced its criticism of this decision, stating it feared that Dutch students would be displaced by a growing number of international students. Visser disagrees. ‘I think that Dutch students are sufficiently prepared for our selection process. We’ve already seen this to be the case when we worked with a selection procedure in the past.’
The UvA is trying to cope with a surge in student enrolment: a fifty per cent increase since 2016-2017 has partly been caused by a doubling of international students. The facility department expects that the university will face logistical problems due to the rapidly growing student population.
