Yesterday, a proposal was made by the KULeuven to shift the start of the academic year to September 1st, instead of October 1st. The rationale was that the exams could then take place prior to the christmas holidays (a two week holiday), and that students could then actually party without fearing the upcoming exams.
It seems that the students the national television interviewed were also proponents of this idea. This seems quite silly to me. First of all, a lot of students party for three months and start studying during the holidays. Second, the holidays effectively add two whole weeks of study, which increases the odds of passing the exams. Third, I think there will be no more time to have an extra week in which lessons can catch up in case of absence, or classes that were skipped due to days off during the semester. Now there are five to six weeks after the christmas holidays in which the exams can be organised, usually one week to catch up, if necessary, one week to study and then the exams spread over the rest of the examination period. Add to this two weeks of holidays to study, and then cram it all into four weeks, max. Indeed, there are twelve weeks of classes, i.e. that would be from September 1st to November 30th. Christmas holidays start the week in which December 24th falls (in time for yuletide). This gives students at most 23 days to study and do the exams.
Clearly, a silly proposal for silly students. Which increases the odds of it passing.
Tags: rant