Annual report 2013/2014
Programme committee BSc International Business
Administration
Drs. E.F.J. Lancée
Dr. D.A. Driver - Zwartkruis Dr. Z. Sasovova
C.M. Allis
S.L.W. Schouten N. Vlek
Index
1. Education committee: composition, range, functioning 1.1 Composition of the committee
1.2 Scheme of meetings and items on the agenda 1.3 Recruitment of members and communication 2 Advices
2.1 Academic and Examination Regulations (AER) next academic year 2.2 Assessment of execution AER
2.3 Other advices 2.4 Evaluations
1
Education committee: composition, range, functioning
1.1 Composition of the committee
In accordance with Article 2 of the Model Scheme on programme committees, stating that a program committee must exist of at least four and up to six members, with half of the members being registered students from the programme concerned, the programme committee BSc International Business Administration 2013-2014 existed of 3 staff members and three student members:
- Drs. E.F.J. Lancée (chair)
- Dr. D.A. Driver - Zwartkruis (staff member) - Dr. Z. Sasovova (staff member)
- S.L.W. Schouten (student representative year 1) - C.M. Allis (student representative year 2) - N. Vlek (student representative year 3)
1.2 Scheme of meetings and items on the agenda
Date meeting Items on the agenda (short representation)November 20, 2013
15.30-17.00
1. Opening and announcements
a) Announcement about availability digital evaluations
2. Student representative year 1 3. Teaching courses in English
4. Course evaluations period 1 (enclosed) 5. Date next meeting
6. Questions and closing January 28, 2014
16.15-17.45
1. Opening and announcements 2. Adoption agenda
3. Adoption minutes previous meeting
4. Type of Exam questions (mc/open/essay etc 5. Surveys work placement/thesis
6. Course evaluations period 2 7. Questions and closing May 6, 2014
11.00-12.30
1. Opening and announcements a. Introduction guests
2. Adoption agenda
3. New BSc programme IBA
4. Adoption minutes previous meeting 5. Audit IBA
6. OER concept 2014-2015 7. MC exams overview
8. Course evaluations period 4 9. Questions and closing July 18, 2014
13.30-15.00 1. Opening and announcements 2. Adoption agenda
4. Course evaluations period 5/6 5. Thesis process
6. NSE results 7. Annual report
1.3 Recruitment of members and communication
In September 2013, the starting month of the academic year 2013-2014, recruitment of the new student members for the programme committee 2013-2014 has taken place. A job description was placed on VUnet and additionally all first, second and third year undergraduate students from the BSc International Business Administration received the job description in their mailbox . Students showed great interest in becoming a member of the programme committee. The committee received a great amount of applications. The direct emailing proved to be more effective than the communication through VUnet. The chair made a pre-selection based on the CV’s and motivation letters. The selected candidates were interviewed by the chair and afterwards the chair selected the most suitable candidates. The official appointment of the candidates was done by the Faculty Board with fellow approval of the FSR.
2
Advices
2.1 Academic and Examination Regulations (AER) next academic
year
An email was sent to the faculty management regarding the AER:
‘[…]
Please see p.7 item 4.4, # 1, whereby the time allocated for “marking” an examination is 10 days. As IBA Committee we have earlier discussed the need for more essay/open question style examinations for 3rd year courses.
Therefore, my question is, is consideration given to the 10 day requirement and the number of students enrolled in a class? That is, when enrolment exceeds 75 students, and an essay/open examination is given, it appears the Coordinator requires more time than 10 days for evaluating the examinations and/or more faculty need to be available to “evaluate” the examinations.
Thus, rather than the Coordinator having to make a special “request for an extension”, (as is presented in the current document) would it be possible to change the regulation for example, to a minimal of 15 days when enrolment exceeds 75 students? In this fashion, students can expect their scores in 15 days rather 10 days. And thus, this regulation change would eliminate the amount of emails the faculty would receive from students, who would inquire “where is my grade, when will scores be published”.
[…]’
This request has not been granted by the faculty management.
2.2
Assessment of execution AER (before 1 March) of the current AERThe AER was executed in a proper way. We have neither received any complaints nor noticed any problems regarding the execution of the current AER.
2.3
Other advices
The education committee has given the following advices to the faculty board on its own initiative.
Date of advice December 5 2013 – Advice 1 Overall combined
advice about the programme
o Recruiting teaching assistants – selection procedure more stringent in order to recruit teaching assistants with more talent for teaching;
o Speaking English in all courses; IBA being an international programme, all courses should be taught in English. For this year this was not the case.
language proficiency in period 1;
o Exchange sessions – communication and specific sessions for FEWEB students in order to inform the students even better.
Date of advice February 7 2014 - Advice 2 MC exams versus
OQ exams
Inventory by committee (see attachment) about percentage of MC questions and open question exams in the program. Result, more MC exams than OQ exams. Although it is time consuming for lecturers, students should get more exams with open questions. The balance between MC and OQ should be more equal.
Date of advice February 7 2014 - Advice 3
Length internships Issue internships (length). Year 3 students often experience the problem that companies ask for students that can do a longer internship than the VU is offering. It should be possible for students (also for their own benefit) to have a longer internship without having to extend their study.
Responses of FB No response on advise 1 (change to new program director)
Response on advise 2 and 3 by new program director in face-to-face discussion. Also the exam issue (MC/OQ) has been solved based on our research and the changes in the BA program.
Points of interests for next year
2.4
Overall evaluations per year
Report written by student members.YEAR 1
Overall evaluationAll courses given in year 1 of the programme IBA should give a good introduction into the different business fields. Starting off with a course as IIBA is a good choice, students feel this gives them a good insight in the rest of the programme, and get an general idea of
management. Also marketing was a well-appreciated course especially because of the lecturer.
The next period (2) contains 3 intensive, high-level courses. This is a problem for most students and therefor it should be considered to change the composition of this period. Because even though the courses are well taught, students feel like they don’t have the required time to put into every individual course.
As for the following period (3) the opposite is suggested. It is a relatively easy period, but this does not indicate its significance. It are useful courses which contribute to the cohesion in the programme.
The fourth period contains the two well appreciated courses; Logistics and Organizational Research and Organizational Behaviour. These are well taught courses that contribute to a good level of the programme.
In the next (5th) period attention should be given to the improvement of Statistics, especially since this is a very fundamental part of the programme. And as for the final period there are no special points that need first attention.
All-in-all there are some course specific problems we encountered and also the composition of certain periods should be reconsidered. But as we understood this is something that is changed in the new programme.
YEAR 2
In year 2, more in-depth knowledge is gained about courses already taught in the first year. In the beginning of the year the courses ‘Business Information Technology’ and ‘Strategy and Environment’ provide general knowledge of important subjects in de business context. These courses are interesting but Strategy and Environment were quite hard for a lot of students, and a significant number of students failed this course the first time. The courses together form a good combination to gain extra knowledge about these subjects in business. Also, these courses are a good follow-up on the courses of year 1, for example on IIBA and Business Processes.
Then, in the second period, the second part of Finance is taught. This course was also failed by a lot of students in the first attempt, probably because the level was underestimated. Finance is the second part of FFA in the first year, but the level was experienced as quite different (harder), and also it was taught by a different teacher than the first year’s course. In period 3 two small courses of 3 ECTS are taught, HRM and Statistics II. HRM could be considered as a more specific course to gain more knowledge about organizational behaviour, which is taught in the first year, and Statistics II follows up on Statistics I, but since a lot of people did not pass Statistics I this was for them a hard course to pass.
Therefore, it could be advised to place Statistics II after the resit of Statistics I, so people refreshed their knowledge and hopefully passed it before doing part II without passing part I. The courses in period 4 are very hard, as Management Accounting is one of the most
important obstacles in the second year, and European Business Law is also failed by a lot of students. Management accounting is the second part of FAB which is taught in the first year, but failed by a lot of students. It is good that Management accounting is however in the second semester, so second year students already had the resit of FAB, and refreshed their knowledge on accounting. Also important to notice is that students are generally not satisfied with the book that is used for European Business Law. QBA is a follow up of a part of LOR of the first year, which is further exploring quantitative an optimization skills. It is reckoned to be a good follow up on the first year’s course.
In period 5, Logistics and Information Systems and Service Marketing Management are taught. LIS is the follow up on LOR, but consists of two different subjects, including two different teachers. This brings along some confusion and lacks cohesion. It is actually taught as two different courses, including the exam existing of two different parts, so it could be better to split this course, as it only makes it more confusing for students. Also, despite of the name, it does not really have a lot of connection to the first year’s course LOR.
Finally, in period 6, Integration business plan and Philosophy I are taught, of which Integration business plan was a very chaotic and unclear course.
YEAR 3
Period 1,2 and 3 are not real ‘IBA periods’, since almost every student is on exchange. Still we need to take a closer look on the international courses. Students who stay at the VU and do not go on exchange are obliged to follow two courses with an international content as part of the obligatory IBA curriculum. Currently there are six of these courses. However, two of them ‘Economische en Sociale Geschiedenis’ and ‘European Integration and Networks’ will not be part of the curriculum next year. The courses that will still be part of the curriculum next year are mostly taught in the end of the year, during period 4 and 5. This implies that a student who does not go on an exchange, can only follow extra international courses in the end, and not when everyone else is on exchange. This will put way too much pressure on the student in the end of his/her bachelors.
Period 4, 5 and 6 are difficult, since every student just got back from their exchange. It is both hard for students and teachers to get back on track. This is mostly also because the courses taught (SNA/Professional Skills) are not that tough, but simply a lot of work. The ABRM course taught in period 4 is a useful course, but might be taught earlier in the programme. The ABRM should be considered as basic knowledge for the entire curriculum. The same counts for professional skills, taught in period 5 of the third year. A student definitely needs the skills and the knowledge taught by this course, however the timing is bad. No student wants to pay attention to their professional skills whilst writing a thesis and finishing his bachelor.
YEAR 3 – THESIS PROCESS EVALUATION
The individual accompaniment was overall good. The problem was the supervisor of the supervisors, since there was none. This resulted in a situation in which every supervisor did something else, and therefore communicated something else. As a result students of the same study wrote completely different theses. Some had to write a literature review, others had to conduct a whole research till the point that they started their research. This caused a lot of confusion. Moreover some questions about submission or deadlines rose during the period, and mostly the answer was ‘that depends on your supervisor’. Such an important process as a bachelor thesis should have more guidance. The course manual was clearly and unfortunately not enough.
3. Evaluation functioning of the programme committee and points
of interest for next year
The committee performed better this year as compared to last year. The student members were very motivated to participate and improve the IBA program. This was a point of attention based on last year and due to an official application procedure we have selected the best students for this job.
Also the communication with the program director has improved. Part of this can be
explained by both the pro-active attitude of the new program director Mirella Kleijnen as well as Emile Lancee (Chair).
Point of attention for next year is finding a good qualified first year student to participate and discuss possibilities for duo-membership per year as this will probably intensify the work of the committee as well as the qualitative outcome.
