List Sefa 2015 Party Program Together For a Better Faculty
Vision: We, List Sefa, are the only party originated on the faculty. Therefore we consider the needs of FEB students as our priority. We are here to ensure that you have a say in the ways the university is managed and have sufficient opportunities to reach your full potential. Being students ourselves, we have a clear view on issues our faculty faces, and we have persistence and determination to create a more fulfilling and inspiring educational experience. We are here for the faculty. We are here for you.
-Our people1. Maksim Svetlov: What I want to accomplish is to create a supportive academic environment for international students that facilitates a connection between the Dutch society, its language and the labour market.
2. Mink PerrĂŠe: Being an entrepreneur is becoming increasingly important, therefore I want to incorporate courses in entrepreneurship into the core curriculum of the FEB.
3. Victor Oprea: I am striving to enhance the quality of communication between all members of the faculty so that it becomes more efficient and student-oriented.
4. Gino Balke: I want to improve the quality of the choices we make in our academic career by improving the guidance that the faculty offers.
5. Rinus van Grunsven: Students need a place where they can relax, have affordable meals and can go out for a drink after lessons. Diversifying the catering at Roeterseiland will offer this to our students
6. Kamila Ishalina: I want to make sure that each student has a chance to reach his or her full potential by promoting increased flexibility in composing your study program.
INTEGRATION SUPPORT -Integrating in a new environmentAs many of you have experienced, entering a new environment can be an overwhelming experience. There is an endless amount of differing possibilities to structure yourself, with constant challenges, that will shape you as an individual. As a consequence the concern regarding new environments is: how can everybody grasp the possibilities that suits him or her the best, hence endeavor into new, unforeseen experiences or tasks? LIST|Sefa came up with several points that helps the international community to better integrate in the Dutch environment and in the university itself.
-Learning the languageOne crucial aspect that many international students haven’t been fully joyful about, is the lack of free Dutch courses offered by the UvA. Allowing the university to offer Dutch courses to the international community will enable greater accomplishments. It offers students the ability to communicate with their environment and with Dutch peers studying the same program. It also facilitates the approach towards finding a job to better integrate in the community and/or provide themselves with more skills to experience the country at its fullest.
-Finding a jobMany international students have a hard time finding a job. Many Jobs require fluency in Dutch and there is a lack of support within the university to assist students to find jobs or internships that offer a practical learning experience. The Faculty should therefore assist in helping international students to find a part-time job that suits their capabilities at the best. LIST|Sefa wants to provide all the necessary tools and platforms for the international community so they can use it to their advantage when incurred with such issues.
-HousingAlthough some platforms for finding housing in Amsterdam already exist, some students wish to gather themselves together and find a private apartment. This would satisfy their needs better and would protect them from being fooled around by the different housing companies that mostly disregard to help students as good as possible. Consequently an action that can be taken is to create a community within the faculty that addresses this issue by providing relevant websites, previous reviews of students, or students that will leave their rented apartment and would be willing to suggest it.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP -Entrepreneurship as a key part of educationOur FEB-students are young and motivated people with high ambitions and potential. Some will be great economists, others will work their way up in companies and some will become great entrepreneurs. I want to focus on this last group. Entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs, Henry Ford and Thomas Edison have given society wealth and prosperity and at the same time inspired many ambitious youngsters to follow their paths. To offer those motivated individuals a stepping stone, I believe it is important that universities give great importance to entrepreneurship in their economic related studies.
-Entrepreneurial CoursesAlthough the University of Amsterdam does offer some opportunities to follow courses and take on entrepreneurial projects, I believe the UvA could do more. Entrepreneurship should become a key part of education within the FEB. Therefore, I want the University of Amsterdam to offer more courses regarding starting and managing your own business. These courses should be available for students from every year.
-Let students experience managing a businessAlthough each program should have a scientific core, I think it is important that the entrepreneurial theory that has been learned during courses can be put into practice. Each student should have the opportunity to experience what managing a business is like. By offering more high-quality projects, students will have the opportunity to learn how to start their own businesses and turn it into a success, even during their study.
IMPROVEMENT OF EDUCATION -Quality of EducationAs students, we believe that study programs in today’s rapidly changing environment should be tailored to individual ambitions and interests of a student. Therefore, we support increased flexibility in the choice of courses within the chosen study program. In our opinion, science and education should complement, not contradict each other. Thus, we support the idea that teachers should be evaluated not only on the base of research, but also effort put into teaching should be considered. The teachers themselves should have more freedom to decide what proportion of time to devote to education and research. This allows for an increase the in quality of education and teachers’ job satisfaction.
-InnovationThe faculty should provide students with the best opportunities for intellectual and professional development. We believe that the most up-to-date study materials is a baseline for broad-minded and competitive education. Therefore, we support incorporation of the most innovative research findings together with well-established theories in the curriculum. This will stimulate a critical way of thinking and provide a more dynamic study environment.
-Participation and involvementSuccessful tutorials should provide students with an inspiring and encouraging environment to develop in depth knowledge of the subject. Active interaction and participation are prerequisites to achieve that. We strongly believe that students should attend tutorials not because they have to but because of their personal interest and involvement with the subject. We suggest that more diverse and stimulating assignments, such as case studies, team projects and presentations, are one of the ways to achieve that. Also, sufficient feedback and support from the teacher is essential for the study progress.
-Exam preparationWe believe that examination can be considered an effective measure of knowledge only if it is closely aligned with the content of the course. Also, each student should have a sufficient opportunity to prepare for the exam. Thus, practice materials should be readily available for no additional cost for every student.
DECISION GUIDANCE -Guidance within the universityBoth students who are fresh on the university, and students who have studied here for a longer time have several points in their academic career in which they need to make important decisions concerning their future. To make a well-informed decision, students need guidance from the university. The university offers good help on a wide array of general issues, but when you have a more specific problem you might be left without the answer you are looking for. Our mission as list Sefa is to provide each individual student the guidance that they need to get their answer.
-Senior students helping juniors We think it is important that the advisors that you see have the information that you need. We understand that a university advisor cannot know every students individual problem and for that reason we want to create the opportunity to talk to other students further ahead in their education who might have better understanding of the results of choosing a certain track, minor, or certain master. These ‘mentor’ students are closer to your problem and are better able to understand what your issues are, and therefore better suited to resolve them.
-Specialised student advisorsAnother way in which we feel that student guidance could be improved is by specializing the student advisors in the different disciplines that are offered at our faculty. By making sure that the people that help you are more specialized in these disciplines, you can get information better tailored to your situation.
IMPROVEMENT OF EDUCATION -CommunicationList Sefa’s objective and desire is to improve the quality of student life and provide an optimal educational setting. Therefore we advocate for efficient communication between all members of the university.
-Student to student communicationThe first facet of communication that needs to be improved is the communication between students. Frequently, students have a hard time making friends outside their small study groups, thus we strive for more communication between various groups of students. Thus, more engaging social activities should be provided to students and interactivity between different groups should be promoted. For example, tutorial projects with people from different groups could serve as means to more interaction. Additionally, students could benefit from more group tasks that involve sharing ideas and knowledge.
-Student - teacher communicationThe quality of communication between students and teachers should also be improved. Students should be able to freely contact and meet with their teachers. Teachers should become more student-oriented and focus more on teaching. One possible way to do that is to provide a more flexible schedule for teachers and allow them to choose between teaching and research.
-Student university communicationLastly, student-university interaction should be refined. There doesn’t exist a centralized system for solving students’ issues, which makes this process more complicated and cumbersome. Additionally, it may prove to be hard to find information about different events organised by the university. Therefore, this centralized information system should also be provided by the university. A single Facebook page of the faculty, an encompassing announcement board provided by the Blackboard and access to a mailing list will help students to stay informed.
DECISION GUIDANCE -Variability of catering choice on RECAll students at the University of Amsterdam deserve a place where they can relax, meet each other and above all, be at a place that was created for students. In my opinion. The current catering company active in for example Agora and CafĂŠ De Krater do not offer this sufficiently. Prices are high, the atmosphere is not student friendly and there is little variation. Therefore, I think the catering of the UvA should no longer be dominated by a monopoly. Variance of choice will lead to improved services.
-Student involvementI feel strongly that UvA and Eurest should work closely with students in rearranging the catering on Roeterseiland. Students want cozy and affordable spots to take a quick break from studying or have lunch. To be able to offer students this moment of relaxation, students have to get a chance to create such a place by themselves.