Not only have current UvA students experienced changes in their education due to the corona crisis, but prospective students are affected by this, too. Since the academic year 2018-2019, the Psychology programme at UvA has been taught in English and a selection procedure has been introduced for prospective students. New students needed to register for the selection before the 20th of January 2020 if they wanted to take part of the Psychology programme in the upcoming year 2020-2021. The selection round took place in January and February 2020 either at Campus Roeterseiland or online. (UvA, n.d.).
Until then, the corona crisis had no impact on the application and admission for the Psychology programme for the upcoming academic year. The first measures of the corona crisis in The Netherlands were taken on the 9th of March 2020; don’t shake hands, and the first serious measures; working from home as much as possible, cancelling of events, closing schools and restaurants etc. on the 12th and 15th of March 2020 (Rottinghuis, 2020).
What has changed is the date by which universities have to announce the results of the selection. Usually, universities in The Netherlands have to announce who has been offered a place in the programme by April 15th. However, as some programmes cannot make this deadline this year, it has been postponed to June 15th (Rijksoverheid, 2020). The UvA did announce the placements for the Psychology programme from April 15th onwards. However, prospective students might be experiencing other difficulties, such as the English language test being cancelled which is required to prove their level of English.
What’s certainly very different for prospective psychology students is that if they are finishing high school this year, they won’t be taking their final exams, at least in The Netherlands (Rijksoverheid, 2020a). In The Netherlands you normally take Central Exams in May the year you’re finishing high school. Students pass high school based on School Exams and Central Exams. The School Exams, which are held in the last one, two or three grades of high school, count for fifty percent of your final grade. The Central Exams count for the other fifty percent (Rijksoverheid, n.d.). Now that the Central Exams are cancelled, high school students get a full diploma based on their grades from the School Exams only. (Rijksoverheid, 2020b).
The Rijksoverheid (2020c) announced that in consideration with universities there will be extra attention for counselling and supporting the prospective students. The director of education of the Psychology department (I. Visser, personal communication, April 30, 2020) stated that if new students are having difficulties with changing to university, the UvA will offer them a training in studying skills in the first semester of the first,
Although the application and admission procedure hasn’t changed that much for prospective psychology students, their journey towards university sure did. Without taking part in the Intreeweek (Wolthekker, 2020), taking the final exams of high school and all things that go along with that, like an exam trip, exam gala and graduation, I wonder how they’ll be experiencing studying Psychology at UvA. Let’s hope everything has returned back to normal by the time the new academic year starts.
References
– Wolthekker, D. (2020). Intreeweek geannuleerd, UvA zoekt naar alternatieven. Folia. Retrieved at May 3th 2020 from https://www.folia.nl/actueel/137704/intreeweek-geannuleerd-uva-zoekt-naar-alternatieven
– Rijksoverheid. (n.d.). Wanneer ben ik geslaagd voor het vwo eindexamen? Retrieved at Arpil 21st 2020 from https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/eindexamens/vwo
/eindexameneisen-vwo
– Rijksoverheid. (2020).a Veelgestelde vragen over het coronavirus en hoger onderwijs. Retrieved at April 14th 2020 from https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/coronavirus-covid-19/ouders-scholieren-en-studenten-kinderopvang-en-onderwijs/hogescholen-en-universiteiten-hoger-onderwijs
– Rijksoverheid. (2020).b Exameneisen vwo 2020. Retrieved at April 14th 2020 from https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/eindexamens/eindexamens-2020-tijdens-corona/vwo-examens-2020
– Rijksoverheid. (2020).c Vragen over het coronavirus en examens in het voortgezet onderwijs. Retrieved at April 14th 2020 from https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/coronavirus-covid-19/ouders-scholieren-en-studenten-kinderopvang-en-onderwijs/examens-in-het-voortgezet-onderwijs
– Rottinghuis, K. (2020). Twee maanden corona in Nederland, een overzicht van de maatregelen. NRC. Retrieved at April 21st 2020 from https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2020/04/20/twee-maanden-corona-in-nederland-een-overzicht-van-de-maatregelen-a3995447
– UvA. (n.d.). Selection Procedure Psychology. Retrieved at April 14th 2020 from https://www.uva.nl/en/programmes/bachelors/psychology/application-and-admission/selection-procedure/selection-procedure.html
Not only have current UvA students experienced changes in their education due to the corona crisis, but prospective students are affected by this, too. Since the academic year 2018-2019, the Psychology programme at UvA has been taught in English and a selection procedure has been introduced for prospective students. New students needed to register for the selection before the 20th of January 2020 if they wanted to take part of the Psychology programme in the upcoming year 2020-2021. The selection round took place in January and February 2020 either at Campus Roeterseiland or online. (UvA, n.d.).
Until then, the corona crisis had no impact on the application and admission for the Psychology programme for the upcoming academic year. The first measures of the corona crisis in The Netherlands were taken on the 9th of March 2020; don’t shake hands, and the first serious measures; working from home as much as possible, cancelling of events, closing schools and restaurants etc. on the 12th and 15th of March 2020 (Rottinghuis, 2020).
What has changed is the date by which universities have to announce the results of the selection. Usually, universities in The Netherlands have to announce who has been offered a place in the programme by April 15th. However, as some programmes cannot make this deadline this year, it has been postponed to June 15th (Rijksoverheid, 2020). The UvA did announce the placements for the Psychology programme from April 15th onwards. However, prospective students might be experiencing other difficulties, such as the English language test being cancelled which is required to prove their level of English.
What’s certainly very different for prospective psychology students is that if they are finishing high school this year, they won’t be taking their final exams, at least in The Netherlands (Rijksoverheid, 2020a). In The Netherlands you normally take Central Exams in May the year you’re finishing high school. Students pass high school based on School Exams and Central Exams. The School Exams, which are held in the last one, two or three grades of high school, count for fifty percent of your final grade. The Central Exams count for the other fifty percent (Rijksoverheid, n.d.). Now that the Central Exams are cancelled, high school students get a full diploma based on their grades from the School Exams only. (Rijksoverheid, 2020b).
The Rijksoverheid (2020c) announced that in consideration with universities there will be extra attention for counselling and supporting the prospective students. The director of education of the Psychology department (I. Visser, personal communication, April 30, 2020) stated that if new students are having difficulties with changing to university, the UvA will offer them a training in studying skills in the first semester of the first,
Although the application and admission procedure hasn’t changed that much for prospective psychology students, their journey towards university sure did. Without taking part in the Intreeweek (Wolthekker, 2020), taking the final exams of high school and all things that go along with that, like an exam trip, exam gala and graduation, I wonder how they’ll be experiencing studying Psychology at UvA. Let’s hope everything has returned back to normal by the time the new academic year starts.
