Student participation on university level

Board of Directors

The University of Groningen is governed by the Board of Directors (CvB). The Board of

Directos is ultimately responsible for the state of affairs throughout the university.

 

University council

The Board of Directors is monitored and advised on request and without request by the

University Council. Both staff and students participate in this official participation body. The

student members are members of SOG, Lijst Calimero or DAG.

 

Student participation on study level

Director of Education

Education at the Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences is organized in three

programmes: Psychology, Sociology and Pedagogical Sciences and Educational Sciences.

Each program is managed by a program director. The program director, also known as

Director of Education, of Pedagogical Scienes (Pedagogische Wetenschappen) is Matthijs

Warrens. He is responsible for the day-to-day operations.

 

Study Program Committee

Each study program also has its own participation body: the study program committee. The

Program Committee (OC) has been appointed by law and aims to monitor the quality of the

programme. In the OC, education is discussed jointly by students and lecturers. The OC has

12 members: 6 teachers and 6 students. The members form a good reflection of those

involved in the programme. The term of office of the student members and lecturers is a

maximum of 2 years and starts on 1 September. The chairman of the OC is appointed from

the lecturer's section. Each year, the student section appoints a vice-chairman. This student

is also the chairman of his own section.

To improve the quality of education, the Program Committee can issue an informal and

formal advice. Such advice from the Program Committee is required by law when the

Education and Examination Regulations (OER) are adopted by the Faculty Council. The

Program Committee has been given the right of consent with regard to a number of OER

matters. In addition, the Program Committee discusses the course evaluations of negatively

assessed courses given during that block in each block and advises the Program Director on

how to approach this. During this discussion, both the results of the evaluation forms and the

AR reports are taken into account. Finally, the Program Committee itself can decide on

which aspects of education it wishes to issue formal advice. The advice is addressed to the

Program Director or the Faculty Board.

 

Year representation

Within each program there is a year representatives for a number of studies. These Year

representatives are not an official participation body, but nevertheless play a major role in

the participation process. The year representatives only consists of students, in contrast to

the other participational bodies. The year representatives solve problems in the courses in

their own year and write evaluations of each course. These evaluations are discussed with

the relevant lecturer(s), the program director and the program committee. We have an

annual representation of years 1, 2 and 3 of Pedagogical Sciences, a year representation of

1, 2, 3 and 4 of the AOLB and an annual representation of the masters Orthopedagogy and

Educational Sciences.

The year representation have contact with the lecturer several times per block, so that the

evaluation can also be discussed with the teacher and minor adjustments can be made

earlier in the course. So if you have complaints or comments about a course or teacher, the

annual representation is a good mouthpiece!

 

Student participation on Faculty level within Behavioural and Social Sciences.

Faculty Board

The University of Groningen consists of ten faculties. Each faculty is governed by a Faculty

Board, similar to the Board of Directors at university level. This board consists of the dean

(also portfolio holder for research), vice dean (also portfolio holder for education) and a

portfolio holder for resources. In addition, each year the Faculty Board has an advisory

student member who attends the meetings of the Faculty Board. Tabatha Ros is the student

assessor of the Faculty Board. She represents the interests of all BSS students in the

Faculty Board. In addition, Tabatha Ros also provides information to all other administrative

students within the faculty (OCs, FR, study associations). Because the advisory student

member attends board meetings, she has a great deal of background knowledge about

matters that are discussed in the Faculty Council and the program boards. Because of this

background knowledge, she can help students from other participational bodies to place

subjects in a broader context. This function therefore stands between the students and the

board of the faculty.

 

Faculty council

The participation body at faculty level is the Faculty Council. It fulfills a role similar to that of

the university council. The Faculty Council consists of nine students (from PSB) and nine

staff members. These members are elected by their own supporters during the Faculty

Council elections that take place every year in May. There is a contact person in the student

section for each study program within BSS who maintains contact with the students of the

study program in question. The Faculty Council discusses all kinds of matters in the field of

education, research, personnel policy and finances. There are a number of recurring

subjects, such as the Teaching and Examination Regulations (OERs), but members can also

contribute their own ideas about matters that concern the entire faculty.

Every month, the Faculty Council has an official meeting with the Faculty Board and the

student advisor of the Faculty Board. These meetings are public and can therefore be

followed by anyone who is interested.

In addition, the student section often has two or more workgroups. These working groups

focus on a specific subject within the faculty, such as “Education”, “Communication” or

“Internationalisation”. They prepare initiative proposals or agenda items of the main meeting

extra well and they undertake other activities related to the subject of the working group. The

working groups may differ per year.

 

Other structures

Exam committee (EC)

The Exam committee monitors the correct application and compliance with the rules. The

committee consists of a number of examiners from the study program and is appointed by

the Faculty Board. There is a Daily Board (DB), consisting of the chairman and the

secretary. This DB meets every week, except for a few weeks around Christmas and a few

weeks in July-August. The Examination Board assesses requests for exemption, recognition