Central Works Council wants investigation into academic year structure
The Central Works Council of the UvA wants an investigation into a different academic year structure, whereby it should not be predetermined that this will remain 8-8-4. The Executive Board of the UvA should make a decision on this matter. The academic year structure has been a subject of debate between the faculties and the UvA Board for many years.
The academic year structure concerns the organisation and distribution of teaching according to a fixed block system. Over the past ten years, the so-called ‘8-8-4 structure’ has been used across the UvA, with each of the two semesters divided into three blocks: two blocks of eight weeks and one of four. Other academic year structures are also possible. For example, the universities of Utrecht and Groningen have an academic year structure of two 10-week blocks per semester. The total number of teaching weeks is 40 per academic year at all universities.
In any case, the intention is for each university to have a fixed structure that applies to all faculties, partly to make it easier for students to attend lectures at different faculties, which would be very difficult if the academic year structure differed per faculty. In the past, the UvA opted for 8-8-4, although this appeared to be subject of much debate from the outset, particularly at the Faculty of Humanities (FoH), which offers a large number of programmes that all have to fit into these six blocks, making organisation complicated. It also causes study stress for students and work pressure for staff.
A smarter academic year
In March of this year, a group of FoH lecturers and researchers raised the alarm about this issue. However, there had already been a lot of criticism of the academic year structure, although the then dean, Fred Weerman, believed that it should be maintained. In the meantime, a national project has been carried out to improve the workability and studybility of the curriculum. The interim evaluation of the project “A smarter academic year” has now revealed that there really is something wrong with 8-8-4. For example, the academic year is “very long”, the number of assessment moments is “very high” and the curriculum is “very full”.
Fairer
The Central Works Council endorses the proposals for improvement, but also has fundamental objections to 8-8-4. According to the Council, the annual structure is based on “keeping classroom scheduling manageable”, which the Council believes is the wrong starting point. “You can expect a university to base its academic year structure on education, teaching methods, workability for lecturers and studybility for students.”
The Council therefore wants a UvA-wide study into a better and fairer annual schedule. “It is precisely the uniformity of 8-8-4 that has led all faculties to make their own adjustments to make it somewhat workable and liveable, which has resulted in very large differences in the annual schedule and the workload for lecturers and students.” The Council therefore wants the UvA to conduct a study into a different academic year structure, which should be introduced in the 27|28 academic year.
