Binding study advice mainly has disadvantages, according to new large-scale research

The binding study advice (bsa) does not work, according to the largest study ever conducted on the topic. Graduation rates hardly improve, and fewer students obtain a degree. As far as the LSVb is concerned, the bsa could be abolished immediately.

Many universities of applied sciences and almost all universities impose a strict requirement on their first-year students: if they do not achieve a certain number of credits, they receive a negative binding study advice (bsa) and are expelled from the programme.

The bsa threshold is often around forty credits, but some programmes require sixty – meaning students must pass the entire year at once. If they fail, the only option is to start at a different programme or another institution.

This ‘shuffling’ of students has long been criticised. Students who fall just below the bsa threshold still have a real chance of earning a degree. For example, Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences observed this after the coronavirus pandemic, when bsa rules were temporarily suspended. The Vrije Universiteit reported similar findings last year.

‘Significant disadvantages’

A study published today in the economists’ journal ESB draws an even sharper conclusion: for both students and educational institutions, the bsa offers few benefits and has “significant disadvantages”.

Of the students who are expelled under the bsa, statistically half would have completed the programme. This conclusion is drawn by PhD candidate and economist Sander de Vries of the Vrije Universiteit, based on CBS data covering 700,000 university bachelor students across 351 programmes. The influence of the bsa had never before been studied on such a large scale.

The National Student Union (LSVb) sees the research as confirmation of its position: the bsa mainly causes stress while providing little else. “Nothing prevents politicians from simply abolishing the bsa”, says LSVb chair Maaike Krom in response.

Universities take a different view, a spokesperson for Universities of the Netherlands (UNL) notes. “Students themselves experience the bsa as positive far more often than negative. During the coronavirus years, we saw that students who continued with fewer credits often dropped out later.”

A common argument for the bsa is that students with little chance of success might otherwise drag on in their studies for a long time if they cannot be expelled after the first year. During the coronavirus years, these students were indeed able to continue, only realising much later that they might not be suited for the chosen programme. The new study does not clarify how many students this concerns.

‘Not weak students’

Researcher Sander de Vries examined first-year students who began between 1994 and 2014. During this period, an increasing number of programmes introduced a bsa – by 2014, all 351 bachelor programmes studied had one.

For each programme, the researcher looked at students’ chances of success before and after the points requirement was introduced. CBS data also allowed him to determine how many students who dropped out eventually earned a degree in another programme. “The results show that students who drop out due to the bsa are not necessarily weak students”, he writes.

One of the aims of the bsa is to get more students into the right programme, UNL emphasises. But the research shows that this does not happen. “It is not clear that [students who fail the bsa] perform better in another programme”, the study notes.

On the contrary: overall, 1.7 percent fewer students graduate due to the introduction of the bsa. On the other hand, students who do meet the points requirement graduate on average three weeks faster. But the study notes that this acceleration is ‘statistically indistinguishable from zero’.

Political hot topic

Several large universities of applied sciences have already abandoned the bsa, partly following criticism from former Education minister Robbert Dijkgraaf of D66, who argued that the measure mainly causes stress for students.

Dijkgraaf had wanted to introduce new rules to weaken the points requirement nationally, but met strong resistance from universities. Even his own coalition partner, the VVD, was not enthusiastic.

When the VVD later formed the Schoof cabinet with NSC, PVV and BBB, Dijkgraaf’s proposal was immediately dropped. They agreed not to relax the bsa rules. In the new coalition agreement of D66, VVD and CDA, there are no provisions regarding the bsa.