New committee to resolve EUR’s proctoring crisis

A conversation between EUR Rector Frank van der Duijn Schouten and a student representative on the University Council, Bram Heesen, has resulted in a possible solution to the online proctoring crisis that has sown discord in the University Council. The Rector will establish a committee that will be charged with evaluating the use of anti-cheating software. However, this does not necessarily mean that students will refrain from instituting legal proceedings, as some students have threatened to do.

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The University Council is torn on the subject of online proctoring. Ten of the twelve student representatives on the Council are considering taking the Executive Board to court so as to put a stop to online exam proctoring. However, some staff representatives and a couple of student representatives firmly oppose legal action. The subject has engendered several emotional debates at Council meetings.

During last Tuesday afternoon’s University Council meeting, Van der Duijn Schouten explained his proposal. All parties involved will be represented on the committee: students, lecturers and members of the University Council and examinations boards, as well as IT specialists and the Rector himself. If all goes well, this committee will issue a conclusion on whether to use online proctoring (and if so, how) in five weeks. This conclusion will not only touch on the controversial two-camera set-up, but on how online proctoring is to be used in general.

Regulate rights better

In other words, it remains to be seen whether the students can be averted from their plan of instituting legal proceedings. Ten student representatives on the University Council have been negotiating the introduction of an online proctoring ‘framework’ that properly protects students’ rights with the Executive Board for several weeks now. They have hired attorneys for additional support in the negotiations, and they are not ruling out legal action. As of Wednesday morning, Bram Heesen, the student representatives’ spokesperson, had not had time yet to discuss the Rector’s proposal with his fellow students. “We have yet to reflect on this among ourselves. We’re not ruling out a lawsuit just yet, but it will partly depend on what that committee will be like.”