The student counsellor is your point of contact for confidential heart-to-heart conversations, advice and information on the following challenges and difficulties:

• Confidential matters
• Non-education-related issues/personal issues 
• Personal matters and challenges that are not directly education-related, for example: 
  • Integration/Community 
  • Motivation 
  • Loneliness, homesickness 
  • Relationships and family circumstances 
  • Health, illness and care 
• Note: The student counsellor does not provide any medical treatment. Suspected disorders/mental health issues that require more specialised or long-term treatment are referred to the GP/medical professionals.

How does the student counsellor system work?

• 3 hours per week of walk-in hours, with even weeks (2,4) on Tuesday mornings from 9:00-12:00 and odd weeks (1,3,5) on Tuesday afternoons from 13:00-16:00.
• Students can book a walk-in or a virtual (Google Meet) appointment, approximately 15-20 minutes. Register for the time slot directly via email to Rens. 
• Within the same month, students can have follow-up session(s) of around 1.5 hours total per person (can be allocated in one or multiple sessions) if needed.

Contact information: Rens Platteel-de Clercq, rens@platteel.nl, 06-45268720

When you have received a Binding Negative Study Advice, it means at the moment your study progress is not sufficient to continue your studies at Wittenborg University of Applied Sciences (WUAS).

You are required to have obtained at least 30 European Credits in the past 12 months.

WUAS will terminate your study agreement within the next 14 days, unless you take immediate action to discuss your situation with your process tutor/study advisor and are able to prove that you have excusable reasons for your insufficient study progress.

Termination of the study agreement also means that WUAS will withdraw the sponsorship from IND and your study residence permit will become invalid, regardless of the date mentioned on your residence permit card. Last is exclusively applicable to students who hold a study-based residence permit. 

Please read the following information carefully: 

Study Advice:

The Study Advice is sent to you every 6 months and monitors your study progress. A Binding Negative Study Advice means that you can no longer continue to study at WUAS as your study progress is so low, that it is not to be expected that you will graduate from WUAS.

Study Progress Monitoring (for Non-EU/EER students holding a study-based residence permit):

You have received a residence permit that is valid for the duration of your programme. To keep your residence permit, the IND requires you to obtain at least 50% of your credits (30 credits per year). If your study progress is not sufficient, WUAS is obliged to inform the IND that you have not obtained the required amount of credits. As an effect, you can lose your residence permit. This rule applies to students in both Bachelor and Master programmes. More information about the study progress monitoring requirement from IND can be found here: Study progress monitoring | Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND).

What should you do if you have received Binding Negative Study Advice?

If you have received a Binding Negative Study Advice, you must immediately make an appointment to meet with your Process Tutor/Study Advisor. The Process Tutor/Study Advisor will inform the Registry Department in case there is any valid reason for not having obtained sufficient study progress, leading to a one-time waiver of the consequences of the Binding Negative Study Advice. In this case, a new study agreement must be agreed on, including a plan to improve your study progress and results.

What does it mean to receive a Binding Negative Study Advice if you are a Non-EU/EER student holding a study-based residence permit: 

If you are not allowed to continue your study at WUAS, your study agreement will be terminated and you will be deregistered. More information can be found in the EEG/General terms and Conditions.

The Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) will be notified that your study progress is not sufficient and that you are deregistered as a student. This will lead to a revocation of the residence permit based on study at WUAS. 

What does it mean to receive a Binding Negative Study Advice if you are an EU student:

If you are not allowed to continue your study at WUAS, your study agreement will be terminated and you will be deregistered. More information can be found in the EEG/General terms and Conditions.

 “Dienst Uitvoering Onderwijs” (DUO) will be informed that you are no longer studying at WUAS.  

What are excusable reasons for not achieving sufficient study progress?

In agreement with article 7.51 in the WHW (Higher Education Law), there are excusable reasons for insufficient study progress. The following personal circumstances can cause a delay in a student’s study: 

• Illness or pregnancy. 
• Physical, sensory or other functional disorders. 
• Exceptional family circumstances. 
• The study programme was not (completely) offered 
• Fulltime membership in a board of a student organisation or university council, or other positions that have a societal impact in the interest of the study programme. To be agreed on by the Higher Education Institute.

An excuse can only be allowed one time. These reasons have to be discussed with your process tutor/ study advisor, evidence supporting your reason is needed.   

A study agreement is a formal requirement towards the fulfilment of the tutoring process for all students.

No, you cannot do an internship/work placement after graduation. For an internship in the Netherlands, Dutch law requires applicants to be either a European Citizen OR to be currently enrolled in an educational institution as a student. It should be noted that after graduation, you will in general no longer be able to take an internship in the Netherlands. Your Work Placement ending date must be within the period of your registration at Wittenborg. 

This statement of contribution is for a group assignment which is part of the assessment requirements of any module that has a group assignment. 

No lessons are facilitated online from academic year 2022-2023. 

Wittenborg is an experiential institute, thus, students need to physically interact with each other. The teachers will conduct all lessons in the classrooms and the study materials will be available for students via the online course areas on Wittenborg-Online, as usual. Note that no lessons will be streamed live.

At Wittenborg, students signed up for a programme that is planned and offered with lessons, projects, and other educational activities delivered in-campus on full-time basis. Therefore, all students are expected to effectively participate in the classes and fulfil all study requirements.

If you have travelled outside the Netherlands for mitigating reasons (e.g medical) please note that you are eligible to request for Leave of absence/study freeze. You can find more information on this in the FAQs. https://www.wittenborg-online.com/mod/glossary/showentry.php?eid=848

Online lessons since Pandemic times have changed our habituality. A common challenge faced by all education institutions around the world is the integrity and validity of the online examinations and assessments. Various software, online platforms and individual service providers have established themselves on paraphrasing existing text and ghost writing as business models. Note that these attempts are categorised as “Academic Malpractice” in the Education and Examination Guide (EEG).

Turn-it-in has implemented a new algorithm in their latest upgrade. This upgrade has improved the similarity function and the detection of the usage of paraphrasing tools/services amongst many other additional features to support the examiners identify these attempts.

We would like to urge all student to avoid using these tools when developing their work as it is important for you all to put the required efforts to ensure you have obtained the required knowledge and skills for each study component.

During the grading process, if the similarity in assessments between two or more students is identified it will result in an automatic failure (for all parties involved) and will be reported to the Graduation and Examination Board to take actions accordingly. You must ensure that you do not work together with other students in a group/team or share any information related to your home assignment for any module submission. This is very important and your own responsibility to protect your work being copied by other students.  Our plagiarism policy is available in Part 5 of the EEG.

One of the fundamental purposes of the Graduation Assignment/Final Project is to ensure students carry out original applied research in a field that is related to their specialisation. This is done with the guidance of an academic supervisor, who is appointed in the final phase of a bachelor's degree programme, or from the first semester of the master's degree programme. Academic supervisors are always members of the academic staff at WUAS, appointed by the Graduation and Examination Board (GEB).

Academic supervisors will be allocated according to various criteria including their familiarity with the proposed topic, their knowledge of the relevant methodologies, their experience in conducting and supervising applied research projects and their workloads.

You can request an Academic Supervisor when you meet the following pre-requisites:

•         For bachelor’s students: you have obtained 180 ECs (credits);
•         For master’s students: you have received approval on your Research Topic in Semester 1;

To request an Academic Supervisor, please complete the Online Academic Supervisor Request Form via the links below. You will receive a confirmation email approximately between 3-7 working days after submitting the form completely. Once an Academic Supervisor is assigned to you, please make contact with your Academic Supervisor by making an appointment using the Microsoft Office Calendar.

Bachelor Students: Academic Supervisor Request Form (Rene Rijnders, the Head of Academic Supervisor, Bachelor Programme)

Master students: Academic Supervisor Request Form (Dadi Chen, the Head of Academic Supervisor, Master Programme)

Please know that the arrangement of a study finance/ study loan is always between the student and DUO. So if you have any questions whether you are entitled to receive study finance/ study loan in the Netherlands as a foreign student or regarding your monthly allowance, please check the Rijksoverheid website and/ or the DUO website. In case you are unable to find the answers you are looking for on any of the websites, you are advised to give DUO a call.

If you are entitled to apply for a DUO study loan/study finance, you can request a Tuition Fee Statement form ("Verklaring Instellingscollegegeld" form) from us, by (digitally) completing only section 1 of the attached form and sending it to registrar@wittenborg.eu. We will complete the rest of the form for you, sign and stamp it, and send it back to you by email so that you can upload it in your "Mijn DUO". Or in case of any complications with the upload, send it by email to DUO via documenten@duo.nl.

Take note that this whole process goes together with your enrolment in our system, as well as the DUO system. That is why we need to check from our system if you are enrolled for the period you have provided to DUO a Tuition Fee Statement form for. If for whatever reason you have not/ cannot be enrolled yet for the new period as stated in the form (e.g. because of any outstanding fees), we will contact you. 

Two important things to keep in mind:

• Please only request a Tuition Fee Statement form from us, at the moment you have received a new invoice from us, for the new period of your enrolment. If you have still not received an invoice from us for the new period of your enrolment, by latest one month before your current enrolment will end, please send an email to registrar@wittenborg.eu.
• Please keep in mind that you do not receive a Tuition Fee Statement form automatically from us, without a request by email, even if we have previously provided you with one. So please do not forget to send us an email (registrar@wittenborg.eu) on time with your request, as it is your own responsibility to make sure that all the arrangements have been taken care of ahead of time.
  

At Wittenborg, we have modules which help you develop your English Language competency. These are as follows: 
a) Mandatory PDP (Personal Development Planning) module which includes Academic English, as well as TIPS (Training in Interpersonal Skills) module. These two modules are mandatory for Phase 1 and Phase 2 Bachelor students but optional for Master students. These modules help you to develop your academic writing skills as well as presentation skills. You will have opportunities to practice these skills by participating in the lessons, activities and seminars.
b) For students who failed the Support English Assessment (the Diagnostic Writing Test carried out during Introduction Day), they have to attend the Support English module. This support module will help to raise your English standards to a level where the general English is solid enough to eventually incorporate the more specific skills of Academic English.

Apart from the above, you can also do your own self-study through relevant reading materials or referring to English/Grammar/Vocabulary online sources. Try the following:
i) Check the EEG Part 5a Academic Writing Handbook for guides on the language and how to do referencing 

ii) Read this News article which gives suggestions on how you can improve your English

iii) Visit the website BBC: Go the Distance: Academic Writing

iv) Visit the website Harvard College Writing Centre: Strategies for Essay Writing

If you need further help, contact your English teacher or your process tutor/study advisor.

As described in the General Assessment Policy, in Part 5 of the EEG, students will be given an opportunity to review their made exams and they can discuss the grading with the exam review organizer. Any questions or doubts about the marking criteria can be raised during this session and registered for further review or appeal that will be forwarded to the respective teacher. No extended opportunities are organised outside these sessions scheduled during the project week, under general circumstances.

Exam Reviews are organised per phase and students are advised to check the timetable for specific information such as the exact date, time and location. 

Kindly note the Exam Review Rules below.

Exam Review Instructions 

• All examination Hall rules apply to exam reviewers. 
• Students are NOT allowed to take partial or complete exam papers outside the room. 
• Making notes from any exams is NOT allowed. 
• Photocopying or taking pictures of exams is NOT allowed. 
• Sharing of exams among other students is NOT allowed.  
• Pens/erasers are NOT allowed when reviewing exams. 
• Students are NOT allowed to write, add or erase anything on their exam papers.  
• A student can only review ONE exam at a time. A student must return the first exam paper before being allowed to review another exam paper. 
• Students are NOT allowed to talk to each other or hold discussions during the exam review.  

 Some useful tips: 

• Verify marks per question. 
• Count/confirm the final mark. 
• For discrepancies raise your hand and exam organizer will attend to you. 
• After analysing the paper and an issue is found, fill in the exam review form completely with all the required information and write in readable English. Partially filled or difficult to read forms will not be handled. 
• If necessary to discuss any raised issues, a meeting with the teacher concerned can also be arranged within two weeks. Please indicate this in the form with your questions.  

 Note (!) Violation of the rules can lead to serious consequences as per the Examination rules stated in the EEG. Such cases will be referred to the Graduation & Examination board for the decision.  

You need to login in the timetable, select your programme, then save timetable. Now, you can find your examination dates.

https://timetable.wittenborg.eu is the webpage that has all scheduled classes & exams for all programmes. You need to access it to find information on the scheduled class & exam location, date and time and lecturer details.

Students are required to print and submit 2 properly bound hardcopies of their GA/FP to Wittenborg's Front Desk. Please check the EEG Part 8 'GRADUATION ASSIGNMENT & FINAL PROJECT HANDBOOK’ and the Module Online Area for instructions on printing and submission requirements.

From the academic year 2022-2023, you have to submit the clearance form before submitting your final GA/FP. Please follow the instructions given in the online area of when and how to submit the form. 

Please check this link GA/FP Clearance Form (office.com). Note that the clearance form gives an indication of the below eligibilities: 

• A student has completed all the required exams except the GA/FP and has achieved 220 European Credits for Bachelors, and 65 European Credits for Masters.
• All liabilities like library books and any other borrowed materials are returned by the student. 
• There are no financial dues to Wittenborg University of Applied Sciences by the student. 

Please refer to the EEG Part 8 for more information.

If you have received a letter from the CAK (CAK - Centraal Administratiekantoor, is the government organisation that administers Dutch health insurance) that say that you are ‘not insured’, it means that you do not have health insurance with a Dutch health insurer. 

Dutch basic/public health insurance is compulsory for people who work in the Netherlands. This health insurance is different from the International Insurance that international students have. 

If you have a part-time job or if you are doing an internship for which you are paid at least as much as the Dutch minimum wage (click here for more information on the minimum wage), you are required to take out a Dutch basic/public health insurance. Even if you have not received a letter from CAK, you are strongly advised to take out the health insurance or risk getting a fine of hundreds of euros. If you do receive the letter from CAK, please take action within the 3 months or any given period indicated in the letter. 

However, if you work on a self-employed basis or if you have received the letter from CAK incorrectly (because you don't have a part-time job or paid internship), or if you are in doubt whether you really need to arrange for a Dutch basic/public health insurance for yourself, you can contact SVB and start the Wlz assessment (also called the SVB investigation). You can do so by following the instructions below: Keep in mind that it might take 6-8 weeks before you receive the outcome of the Wlz assessment. Therefore, take action immediately after receiving the letter from the CAK.

1) Contact the Sociale Verzekeringsbank (SVB) to request (free of charge) an investigation of your insurance position under the Wlz scheme. For this request, you can either do (A) or (B):

(A) Send by post: Complete the pdf document attached below Assessment of Wlz Insurance Position form (pdf) and send it together with all necessary documentary evidence to: SVB, Postbus 18607, 3501 CR Utrecht.

OR

(B) Do it online. Click on this link Requesting an assessment of your Wlz insurance position online, and login using your DigiD. You can then submit your application quickly and easily.

2) Make a copy of the completed and signed 'Assessment of Wlz insurance position' form and send it immediately to the CAK as this proves that you have taken the necessary action. 

3) If the SVB decision is that you are not to be insured (that means you don’t have to take the Dutch Health Insurance), send a copy of the decision from SVB to the CAK. Use this Contact Form and choose the option ‘regeling onverzekerden’. CAK will then close your file and you can continue with your international health insurance (AON ICS).

4) If the outcome of the Wlz assessment states that you are to be insured with a Dutch public health insurance, do so immediately within the time frame given by the CAK. 

If you are registered in the Netherlands, it is compulsory for you to take out Dutch health insurance. You should still keep your insurance even if you are temporarily abroad. Healthcare insurance from your home country is not sufficient.

You can find more information on how to take out the Dutch public health insurance from here: https://www.studyinholland.nl/plan-your-stay/insurance.

After you have taken the Dutch basic/public health insurance, you must inform Wittenborg's Registrar Department (registrar@wittenborg.eu) about your new insurance by completing this online form 'Apply/Update Insurance Form'.

If you have a low income, you can apply for Dutch healthcare allowance (or benefits) called zorgtoeslag after buying your insurance. Click on the links below to find out more about this benefit.

Healthcare Allowance

Dutch Healthcare Benefit

If your current AON insurance has been arranged by Wittenborg and you have now arranged or wish to arrange insurance by yourself, we can cancel the AON insurance for you upon your request. This request will only be taken into consideration if you can provide proof that your new insurance has already started. Please fill in this online form 'Apply/Update Insurance Form', so that our Registrar Department can cancel your current AON insurance. The results of this form are processed every Wednesday and refunds are made within 8 weeks. You will receive a confirmation of the cancellation of your insurance by email. You can fill in the Refund Request Form.