Science - November 11, 2004

MSc admission requirements fixed

The Student Council agreed last Tuesday to the proposed changes to MSc admission requirements.

These are the requirements that students who are admitted to master’s degree programmes have to fulfil. The requirements are intended to screen students who do not have a BSc degree that is recognised by Wageningen and who therefore cannot be directly admitted to the MSc programmes. Most international students belong to this group. Compared with last year’s proposed changes, the language requirements have been tightened up. The possibilities for taking ‘brush-up courses’ have been extended, although extra requirements have been added, in particular that there should be cohesion and a clear trajectory in courses chosen.

For determining the level of individual courses, a ‘levelling system’ will be introduced. This will be developed this year, but will not be specified or included in the requirements until next year. The admissions committees have been requested to deal with this issue individually until the new system is introduced. Agreements will also be made with other institutes about combinations of courses required for admitting Dutch students wanting to transfer to Wageningen for their master’s. Students at Van Hall Larenstein will soon be able to do ‘transfer minors’.

University Rector Professor Bert Speelman does not expect that tightening up the admission requirements will lead to a decline in applications: ‘The limiting factor is finance, not the admission requirements.’ / JH