More students allowed on campus starting from September

In the upcoming academic year, students will be able to attend lectures and seminars without too many restrictions. The outgoing Cabinet announced last Friday that higher education institutions and VET colleges are allowed to open their doors, and that no social distancing rules will be imposed.

As a result, there will be many more in-person classes this academic year (which kicks off on 6 September) than in the past year and a half. However, not all restrictions will be relaxed. For instance, the maximum number of students allowed inside a lecture theatre will be 75, and students will be required to wear face masks outside the lecture theatres. The group size restriction will result in quite a few restrictions at departments that attract a lot of students. Yet they, too, will be able to offer their students in-person tutorials from September onwards.

Easing coronavirus restrictions will never be free from risk, Prime Minister Mark Rutte admitted during the press conference he gave on 13 August. Nevertheless, restrictions will be eased for the education sector. “Why?”, said Rutte. “Because more than a million young people have had most of their classes taught online for a year and a half now, and the impact has proven to be quite serious. We’re seeing more students drop out, we’re seeing people fall behind in their studies, and most of all we’re seeing more mental and psychological health problems because people are receiving less face-to-face supervision and are having less social contact with their peers.”

In late April, universities began to try to teach their students on campus one day a week. However, this proved impossible to arrange for many degree programmes. Social distancing resulted in a lack of space and difficulty drawing up class timetables.

It is unclear for now what lectures and seminars will be like at Erasmus University after the summer break. An EUR spokesperson told us that the university’s Executive Board is glad that more in-person classes will be able to be taught, but that no decision has been made yet as to what this will mean for EUR’s degree programmes. On Monday the Executive Board and the faculties will discuss how the restriction relaxation will be dealt with.

The university said it could not commit to a restriction relaxation in the long term. “Things will continue to depend on how the pandemic develops and what happens to the infection rates once everyone has returned from their holidays.”

Relieved

On Thursday evening, the Intercity Students’ Organisation (ISO) and the National Student Union (LSVb) expressed their relief at the leaked news that higher education institutions would no longer be subject to social distancing. Pieter Duisenberg, the chair of the Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU), called it ‘good news for students and lecturers’. Many students, too, have expressed their relief on social media, including EUR student Pauline Wiersema, who campaigned this spring for more in-person classes starting from September.