Balance between different study elements

Table 3 illustrates that the inclusion and weighting of different study elements, measured in per-centage of credits obtained from the different elements, varies from one institution to another.

Table 3

Percentage of credits obtained from different study elements

KVL UCD UH WU

ACP AS ARD AS CS Bio

Compulsory courses 20 76 88 82 84 69 69 59 Elective courses 57-65 8 6 8 13 13 16 16 Semi-compulsory study

ele-ments*

5-13 - - - - 6 6 19

BSc thesis/major project 10 - - 2 3 11 8 6

Practical training ** 17 7 8 *** - - -

* Semi-compulsory study elements refer to study elements of which students must choose one of two or more elements being offered. The specialisation options are not included in this definition.

** Students can choose to do practical training, for which they may obtain up to 15 ECTS credits (8 % of the total credits).

*** The programme also includes 26 weeks of compulsory but not credited internship (20 % of the workload)

Compulsory, elective and semi-compulsory courses/study elements

All the programmes comprise both compulsory and elective courses. At WU and KVL the pro-grammes also include some semi-compulsory study elements. At WU these comprise clusters of courses that the students must choose from. At KVL the semi-compulsory study elements are rep-resented by two projects, one of which each student has to choose.

BSc thesis

At WU, UH and KVL, the students complete their BSc studies with a BSc thesis. At UCD, only the ARD specialisation includes a BSc major project. The scope of the BSc thesis/major project differs between the institutions and, in the case of WU, also between the different programmes.

Whereas WU and KVL devote 6-11 % of the total BSc credits to the BSc thesis, UH and UCD only devote 2-3 %.

Practical training

UCD is the only institution among the four that includes practical training as a compulsory part of the programme for which students obtain credits. The students of each of the specialisations have to go through a compulsory PWE period during the third year of the four-year programme. The duration of the training varies from 6 months in the ARD and AS specialisations to 9 months in the ACP specialisation.

At UH, the students must also go through a total of 6 months of practical training (internship) but credits are not allocated to this. The internship may be subdivided in three parts and can be com-pleted before the students enter the programme, in vacation periods or in a period where stu-dents take a break in their studies. The practical training typically takes place on farms and in other enterprises related to agriculture, etc.

At KVL, practical training is not a compulsory element, but the students may choose to do some practical training and can obtain credits for this. Practical training can be placed during the study course, but it is also possible to obtain credits for practical training completed prior to admittance to the programme, and clear procedures exist for the approval of different forms of practical train-ing.

The documentation gathered for the evaluation reveals that there is a high level of appreciation of the practical training among the students at both UCD and UH.

Balance between compulsory and elective courses/study elements

Whereas WU, UCD and UH strongly emphasise compulsory courses and other compulsory ele-ments, the opposite occurs at KVL at present. Whereas compulsory and semi-compulsory study elements amount to 74-92 % of the programme content at WU, UCD and UH, the compulsory and semi-compulsory study elements at KVL amount to a maximum of 43 %.

The weighting of compulsory courses contra electives differs even more.

At UCD the courses available as electives have been reduced through the introduction of new compulsory courses. AS and ACP students find the opportunity, the quality and the quantity of electives more than adequate, but AS students find that they lack enough information to make informed choices. In contrast, ARD students find the number of elective courses unsatisfactory.

At KVL, where most of the programme content is determined by the students’ choice of elective courses, there is a general belief that this freedom to select the courses they want is primarily a positive aspect. The experience of KVL is that the students make sensible choices, and that the system provides considerable motivation for them to sharpen their own profiles through structur-ing their course choices with regard to desired future employment. Nevertheless, the site visit re-vealed that KVL is currently discussing the possibility of increasing the amount of compulsory study elements in the programme.

Since the elective courses at both UH and WU are placed towards the end of the new BSc pro-grammes - which WU has not yet experienced, and UH to only a limited extent - it is still too early to assess their appropriateness. According to the self-assessment report, however, the students at UH are critical about the extensive emphasis on compulsory courses, as this decreases the attrac-tiveness of the programme. The argument for the emphasis on compulsory courses presented in the self-assessment report is that this is the only way to ensure that the graduates possess the desired and necessary qualifications for entering the labour market.

3.3.3 Progression and cohesion