{"id":171689,"date":"2024-09-23T16:23:40","date_gmt":"2024-09-23T14:23:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=171689"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:27:29","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:27:29","slug":"athenastudies-still-selling-exam-training-after-misleading-adverts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2024\/09\/23\/athenastudies-still-selling-exam-training-after-misleading-adverts\/","title":{"rendered":"AthenaStudies still selling exam training after misleading adverts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tutoring company AthenaStudies is still offering training courses. This commercial exam trainer was found guilty of misleading advertising practices this month, the Advertising Code Committee ruled.<\/p>\n

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EUR students also received misleading email advertising from AthenaStudies.<\/span><\/p>

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Among other things, AthenaStudies offers training courses for the selection of dental courses. Some groups are already full, AthenaStudies\u2019 website says. But there are still places available: for around 180 euros, you can register for a one-day \u2018decentralised selection\u2019 course.<\/p>\n

Switched to lottery system<\/h2>

The problem is: there is no more decentralised selection at all. All Dutch dental schools switched to lottery system this summer. The same applies to Groningen\u2019s Medicine programme, for which Athena also offers selection courses.<\/p>\n

Lottery system means that the allocated places are distributed completely randomly among applicants. The programmes no longer ask for marksheets, motivation letters or CVs, nor do candidates have to take tests.<\/p>\n

Money back?<\/h2>

Lucas Reckman, spokesperson for AthenaStudies, says he knows that the selection method has changed, but he does not yet know the details. So he also cannot yet say whether Athena is cancelling the courses and whether participants will get their money back. According to the company\u2019s terms and conditions, customers who cancel courses themselves do not get a refund. On the other hand, if the company lets a course be cancelled, they will get one.<\/p>\n

Misleading advertising<\/h2>

Recently, the Advertising Code Committee took the company to task for the way Athena recruits students for exam training courses. The commission called<\/a> it \u2018deceptive\u2019 and \u2018misleading\u2019. Reckman would not comment on that either.<\/p>\n

Students working for Athena opened an app group under the name of a course and with the university\u2019s logo, investigations<\/a> by Groningen university magazine Ukrant showed. This was followed by a play with enthusiastic messages about Athena from various \u2018students\u2019. In Delft, university magazine Delta saw similar practices.<\/a> Also at Erasmus University, students regularly received urgent-sounding emails from \u2018their faculty\u2019.<\/a><\/p>\n

On the website, sixty training courses are still open for nine studies at Erasmus University.<\/p>\n\n\t

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