Admission
Admission goals, policy, procedure, standards, and prerequisites for admission are publicly available. For Dutch students, we accept all profiles from Dutch pre-university education (VWO). German students need the corresponding Abitur. For other countries, the requirements are available online.
In this table, we present the evolution of student enrolment between 2017-2022:
The enrolment indicates that, for now, our programme is positioned within the cross-border region. The trends suggest that the enrolment of Dutch students is reasonably stable, but it must grow. The enrolment of German students has a basis of roughly 40 students and fluctuates slightly above this basis. We observe a gradual increase in EER and non-EER students. The enrolment distribution suggests that there are opportunities to be explored towards increasing the development of an international classroom, where other EER and non-EER students are welcome.
The student enrolment in the last six years has fluctuated more than expected under regular circumstances. The drops in 2018, 2019 and 2022 can be related to external factors such as a) the general demographic decline of the region as a traditional recruitment area; b) the impact of Covid-19 which led to an increase in enrolment for the candidates who used the opportunity to study online, and c) uncertainties related to the study financing in the Netherlands, which motivated potential candidates to delay their decision to pursue academic education in order to use the re-introduced study grant (as of September 2023) instead of the former student loan system.
The numbers in the table above include students pursuing the PGaB specialisation. These students pursue their first year of study in Münster, and are registered in their second year of study at University of Twente as first-year students. For instance, the number of 45 German students enrolled in 2022 includes both the second-year PGaB students and the first-year ‘regular’ German students who decided to start the MS&T programme.
The current enrolment numbers are -in any case- lower than desired. Measures have been taken at the programme level to strengthen marketing and communication, for instance by developing promotional videos and establishing a more active digital presence. A further refinement of the programme profile is underway and, coupled with the more active marketing presence, is expected to help boost the enrolment.
Matching
A matching process supports students in their decision process. The candidate students fill in a questionnaire and are invited for an orientation discussion. This process helps students clarify their expectations about the programme. The candidate students are supported in their orientation and programme matching through different types of activities organised at programme level, such as “walk-along” days where candidate students, accompanied by students of the programme, participate in different educational activities so that they experience both teaching and ask questions both to the teachers and to other students.
Matching between the candidate student and the programme takes place both before the start of the study and throughout the first year of study. After the first quartile/module, students have the choice to stop and switch the programme without financial consequences for the tuition fee. After the first year of study, the Binding Study Recommendation (Bindend Studie Advies, BSA in Dutch) is issued. Students who achieved a minimum of 45 EC continue to pursue the programme. If the student does not achieve 45 EC and there are no personal circumstances, then the student stops the study. The process considers also the specific circumstances of the student and allows the programme to defer this decision to the second year of study in situations where appropriate supporting evidence is provided by the student. The process is standardised across the university and follows the national policy.
The study advisor assigned to the programme advises students in regard to their educational choices, such as how to cope with unexpected delays in the study, and advises the programme management in regard to the specific personal situations of students, while maintaining confidentiality. The study advisor also supports students in regard to monitoring of their progress and provides advice to programme management with requests specific to the student’s situation.
Success
Study success is defined in terms of the number/proportion of students who complete the programme within the allocated time (i.e. three years plus one year for specific situations).
A graphic representation of the bachelor yield per cohort can be found below.
On average, around 80% of enrolled students manage to complete the programme nominally (i.e. 3 years +1), which is positive and encouraging. The dropout rate in the first year stays around 15%, which is acceptable considering the efforts done to ensure matching discussed earlier. These numbers also indicate that, once students proceed through the programme in the first year, they are convinced about the match with the programme and complete it within the allocated time. The slight drop in nominal study progress observed for the cohorts starting in 2019 and 2020 ensues as a Covid-19 effect, and the cohort which started in 2021 is currently in the 3rd year of the programme.