“Some students want to be stretched a bit more”

“This was a real task we were asked to do. Not something we thought of ourselves. But we teachers agreed that it was a good idea. The students vary a great deal, and we notice this in particular when they start their studies. Some of them are always outstanding,” says associate professor Allan Hvidkjær Sørensen from the Department of Physics and Astronomy, who is responsible for the physics degree programme.

He adds that when the students evaluate the first part of their degree programme, some of them always point out that the curriculum is a repeat of some of the things they studied at upper-secondary school.

A smoother transition

Sørensen explains that this is because the initial phases of the programme were reformed ten years ago to ensure a smoother transition between upper-secondary school and university.

“This is definitely an advantage for the vast majority. But some of the students jump the academic gap with great ease. And these are the ones who want to be stretched a bit more.”

Checking out the students

The teachers discussed several aspects of the original idea produced by the dean’s office when they were presented with it about a year ago. One of the things the dean’s office proposed was that students for the honours programme should be selected based on the marks they had achieved at upper-secondary school. And that they should join research groups right from the start of their studies.

“We agreed that there were lots of factors involved in determining whether they could cope with the honours programme – not just their marks at upper-secondary school. They also need a certain amount of academic insight if they’re going to play a meaningful role in a research group. So we’ve started to check them out a bit first,” says Sørensen.

Freedom of choice during the first year

At the moment the honours programme allows any students who are interested in taking on extra academic challenges to join or leave the honours programme as they wish during the first year.

But students interested in joining the programme for the second year have to submit an application explaining their reasons. They will also be assessed based on their performance on the first year of the honours programme and (not least) the first year of the standard degree programme as well.

“Students must achieve very good results in the first year of the standard programme if they want to continue,” explains Sørensen.

No guarantee of a PhD

The teachers have also discussed the original proposal that students should be guaranteed admission to a PhD programme after successfully completing the honours programme.

“We don’t think this is a good idea. For one thing, we might not feel that some of the people who complete the honours programme are suitable for a PhD programme. And for another, some people might be suitable for a PhD even though they don’t take part in the honours programme. Completion of the honours programme is obviously a strong card to have in your hand, but there’s no guarantee of a PhD,” says Sørensen. He clearly feels that this is an important point:

“Once you get to know the students, you quickly find out who’s got what it takes. And it’s not necessarily the students who sign up for an honours programme. Of course we can encourage promising students to sign up for the programme, and this is exactly what we’ve done informally a couple of times.”

When approached informally by a teacher in this way, some students say they will definitely consider the idea, while others say that they’d prefer to spend their spare time in other ways.

“That’s fair enough. They would have to spend ten extra hours a week doing physics instead of doing other things. The most important thing for us is that they work hard on the standard degree programme,” concludes Sørensen.

Translated by Nicholas Wrigley