Assessors: for 25 years an essential link between students and the university
For 25 years now, each faculty has had an assessor, a student representing the interests of all the faculty’s students. Yet few students are aware of this. ‘If we hadn’t been there, some decisions would have turned out very differently for students.’
‘Hey, you gave that talk at El Cid.’ Most students recognise their faculty’s assessor from the introduction week. ‘But that is often the only thing other students know us from, when it is just a fraction of what we do’, says Nova Verkerk, a history student and the assessor at the Faculty of Humanities.
‘We can immediately add the student perspective and explain how students experience things’
Most of the assessors work’ is behind the scenes. They are the student member of the faculty boards and represent the interests of students at the faculty. ‘It’s really handy and useful to sit at the table with the Faculty Board. They talk about students a lot and come up with a lot of things for them. We can immediately add the student perspective and explain how students experience things’, says Hannah Saberi, outgoing assessor at Leiden Law School, where she studied forensic criminology.
She gives the example of policy aimed at increasing the student success rate. ‘Some policy proposals contain measures that look as though they would increase the student success rate, such as not being able to take an exam if you have missed a tutorial. As we ourselves are students, we can help view such measures from another angle. The flipside of not being able to take an exam, for example, is that it can lead to greater delays because students have one fewer opportunity to take the exam. They listen carefully to us. As assessors we are taken very seriously.’
Why don’t we have a microwave?
Having had a say in Leiden for 25 years now, the assessors want to take the opportunity to look back at all they have achieved and introduce more students to the role. Because students can contact their faculty’s assessor with questions or suggestions about the teaching or student facilities. Some assessors are also on their faculty’s complaints committee.
‘Students can contact their assessor with any question they like.’
The questions they receive are very varied, says Verkerk. ‘Why doesn’t the Lipsius building have a microwave?’ ‘I want to take an extra course but don’t know how.’ Students also tell her they think more attention should be paid to student well-being, for example. ‘Students can actually contact their assessor with any question they like. We can’t answer each individual question but can always refer students to someone who can because we know the university and faculty so well.’
The assessors are also in contact with the study associations at their faculty and other student organisations within the university.
Campus The Hague community
The assessors from the different faculties meet regularly as the Leiden Assessors Council (LAssO). ‘We have more clout together and can advise on policy’, says Verkerk. They have improved the position of study associations, for example, and come up with a declaration of equity to help these associations with diversity and inclusion
‘Now more than ever it is important that students have a say in faculty boards and programme committees’
The assessors are also committed to creating a Campus The Hague community. ‘We want to ensure that students meet, not just within their own faculty but also on the campus’, says Verkerk.
Concerns about late graduation penalty
The assessors are concerned about the student perspective since the late graduation penalty was announced. ‘Now more than ever it is important that students have a say in faculty boards and programme committees’, says Verkerk. ‘But who is going to do that if you have to pay 3,000 euros if you don’t graduate on time?’ They hope that careful thought will be given to how the university can continue to involve students in its participation bodies. ‘If we hadn’t been there, some decisions would have turned out very differently for students.’
Text: Dagmar Aarts
Photo: The faculty assessors, with Nova Verkerk (second from left) and Hannah Saberi (second from right).