Students’ Council says no to numerus fixus for psychology
In a letter sent to the university board, the Central Students’ Council wrote to oppose the proposed numerus fixus for the psychology bachelor’s programme.
Faced with a continued shortage of student applications over the years, the Department of Psychology hopes to boost its numbers by starting an English programme in 2018. Similar programmes in other subjects have resulted in explosive growth. The so-called ‘numerus fixus’ is intended to set a cap on applicants to both the Dutch and English tracks.
Dutch
The Students’ Council has written to oppose the proposal believing that eligible students might be discouraged from applying and that there was a risk more international students would apply than Dutch.
This would be wrong, according to the council, and it asked for the university to guarantee places for Dutch students. No such guarantee can be given, however, as the university is prohibited from considering an applicant’s country of origin when they come from the European Union.
Bypass
The board can still bypass the negative advice by presenting their arguments in an official letter.
Update: A similar debate has arisen concerning the Faculty of Economics and Business. According to information provided by the UvA Department of Strategy and Information, the number of registered first time students has tripled for 2017|2018. Of this, almost 70 per cent are international.
