First-year students must promise to do their bests
First-year students of the college of higher education ‘Inholland’ must promise down on paper that they will dedicate themselves to their study. In exchange, the trainings are put together and fit very well. ‘A student now knows where he stands’, a spokesman says. ‘But is it not a contract’
Covenant between college and first-year students
The first-year students of ‘Inholland’ will have to sign a covenant in which they promise to have a serious and motivated study-attitude. This means that they go to classes, participate actively in group-projects and prepare themselves well.
At least twenty contact-hours
There is something in it for the students. The college promises at least twenty contact hours. School-timetables will be available 2 weeks previously and grades are revealed within fifteen working days. Like its students, the college declares to stick to its code of behaviour.
Expectations
‘Because of the covenant the students know where they stand and what they can expect from us,’ spokesman Niels Pols says. The first three students put their signature at the start of the school year in the Rotterdamse Kuip. The rest of the students sign the covenant during the lessons.
And if they don’t sign? ‘If you choose to study at ‘Inholland’, this is how it’s done. But it remains a covenant, not a contract,’ Pols says. To send away students because they don’t keep their promises is not possible. Just like it goes at other colleges of higher education and universities, the badly performing students can only be sent away at the end of the school year.
‘If students signed the covenant but still cut corners, we can say: “Look, this is what we agreed on”. This also concerns the other way around. If we don’t stick to the rules, the students may call us to account. And we certainly listen to them’.
