‘Fines’ for too late exam registration will stay

The financial contributions that students have to pay if they register for exams too late will remain in existence for the time being.

Secretary Bussemaker recently wrote to the Tweede Kamer (Parliament) that universities are not allowed to ask students for compensation if they register for an exam too late. ‘Charging that kind of costs is prohibited by law.’ Educational institutions are allowed to set a deadline for registration, however. Whoever is too late, can partake in the exam at a later date.

Fines at the EUR

In Rotterdam, too, students pay to register for the exam anyway: 13,50 euro, until two days prior to the exam. At the RSM, the ESE, and the iBMG it may even be done later still, but then the student will have to pay 50 euros for it.

Fines remain

The Erasmus University will not change the regulation for the time being, said Chair of the Executive Board Pauline van der Meer Mohr on Tuesday in the consultation meeting of the University Council. ‘The Secretary has said the institutions are not allowed to charge fines and that students will have to bear the consequences on their own. If they have to do the exams at a later date, that will lead to a lot of delay in their studies,” according to Van der Meer Mohr. ‘We are not charging a fine, but expect a contribution to the costs of administration.’

Costs of administration

Those costs of administrations are in reality much higher than the €13,50, added Ton van der Pijl, secretary of the Executive Board. The real costs are between the 50 and 60 euros per delayed registration, according to him.

Direct registration

At the moment, it is investigated whether there are possibilities to couple the registration for exams with registrations for a course automatically. That is currently being done at the University of Utrecht, for example. If students are registering for a course, they have automatically been registered for the exam. On the EUR it will take some time before that will be executed. The expectations are that such an automatic registration can be implemented in 2015. TF