N=N: Medicine is also taking the plunge

Medicine is this year, together with philosophy, the only study which does not yet work with ‘Nominal is Normal’ (N=N). Recently, Dean Jaap Verweij and Director of Education Walter van den Broek decided that the Erasmus MC will also adopt the measure next year.

Not nearly everyone is happy with the 60-points demand which first year students will have to deal with in September. For example, the Student Council has complained multiple times against the introduction of N=N. ‘The Student Council is of the opinion that the new measure is too heavy and hurts the new Medicine students,’ says Arnout Cramer, Commissary of Education at the Medical Faculty Association Rotterdam (MFVR). Cramer is part of a working group that looks at the best way of applying N=N to Medicine. “We have to pay attention really well that certain ‘vulnerable’ groups will not be disadvantaged with this. Think for example about those with a delayed start. They are students who fill up the places of the students who quit in the first weeks and hence start a bit later.”

Exam density

One of the measures to which the working group has already decided, is the lowering of the density of the exams. Starting September 2014, first year students will not get any other tests within two days prior to a test, something that this year occurs occasionally. Cramer: ‘Measures like these ensure that they are not under too much pressure. That is important, because inequality must be prevented at all costs.’

It is very likely that Philosophy will also shift to N=N next year. However, no official decision has been made yet. MvS