{"id":111767,"date":"2020-03-31T11:54:37","date_gmt":"2020-03-31T09:54:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=111767"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:24:52","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:24:52","slug":"hard-cut-between-bachelor-and-master-under-discussion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2020\/03\/31\/hard-cut-between-bachelor-and-master-under-discussion\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Hard cut’ between bachelor and master under discussion"},"content":{"rendered":"

The strict boundary between bachelor and master programmes may be suspended for a year now that the corona crisis is causing delays for many students. The universities will be formulating a proposal.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAmber Leijen<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Erasmus University is thinking about adaptations to the \u2018harde knip\u2019 (\u2018hard cut\u2019) for students planning to start on a master programme after the summer. This was announced<\/a> on Monday morning by rector magnificus Rutger Engels, during a broadcast of Erasmus TV<\/em>. While it is not yet clear which adaptations the university is considering, Engels did promise that the university will be offering alternatives and will be more flexible when it comes to admitting students who were unable to round off their bachelor degree due to the COVID-19 crisis to a master programme.<\/p>\n

Imagine working on your bachelor thesis and not being able to reach your respondents or finish your field research. Or maybe the marking of your work has been delayed. Before you know it, you\u2019ll need to tack on a few more months.<\/p>\n

At which point you may just miss the start of your chosen master programme. The result: your studies are delayed by at least six months. Maybe even a year: the smaller master programmes often only work with one admission moment per year.<\/p>\n

Forbearance<\/h2>

When the crisis erupted, universities quickly came up with a solution<\/a> for first-year students who aren\u2019t issued a positive binding study advice as a result. They can continue under a temporary forbearance scheme. A similar arrangement has been set up for students in vocational education and training (VET, or MBO) who want to continue their studies: if they had nearly rounded off their existing programme \u2013 but were stopped just before the finishing line by the outbreak \u2013 they will be allowed to already start on a bachelor programme at a university of applied sciences in September. They will be given until 1 January 2021 to obtain their MBO diploma.<\/p>\n

The bachelor-before-master rule is intended to force students to think carefully about how they want to follow up their degree. They need to have completed every step of their bachelor programme before they are allowed to continue.<\/p>\n

At present, students risk running into considerable delays \u2013 through no fault of their own: a situation that no one is particularly happy with. The question remains which agreements should be made exactly. The Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU) has confirmed that the universities are also conferring about the \u2018harde knip\u2019. They will be presenting a proposal in the short term \u2013 provided they are able to agree on a joint position.<\/p>\n\n\t

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