At the faculty, several Participation bodies are in place in which students represent their interests and monitor the quality of education. All Participation bodies consist of both students and staff members. Here, we focus on the Participation bodies that deal with the quality of the master’s programmes at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences.

To make the different layers within the Participation clear, a visual representation is provided here. This diagram shows the Master Participation, but there is also a version in which the entire Participation is displayed.

There are governing bodies, Participation bodies, and advisory bodies. Governing bodies make the final decisions, both at faculty and programme level. Participation bodies give advice and, in some situations, hold the right of consent. Advisory bodies have only the right to give advice.

The first layer consists of the Faculty Board and the Faculty Council. You can find more information about these on the page about faculty-wide Participation.

The second layer consists of inter-programme bodies, where several students from the third layer meet with, among others, the bachelor’s directors. These are the Board of Studies Graduate School for the one-year and two-year master’s programmes (BoS GS) and the Educational Committee for the one-year and two-year master’s programmes (EC). More information on these can also be found on the page about faculty-wide Participation.

The third layer consists of programme-specific Participation. In this layer, each programme is represented by a Programme Advisory Committee (PAC).

Within the master’s programmes, there are two Participation functions: Management Team member (MT) and Programme Advisory Committee member (PAC member).

Management Team member (MT)

The student member of the Management Team (MT) is part of the governing body of the master’s programme and has influence on the policy and organisation of the programme. In the MT meetings, the MT member discusses matters such as the course offerings, curriculum revisions, student well-being, and possible budget cuts, together with the programme director, course coordinators, and policy officers. As the representative of all students in the programme, it is important that the MT member stays well informed about what is happening among fellow students.

MT members are therefore in frequent contact with the student members of the PAC, and they also participate in the MT meeting that takes place prior to the BoS. In this meeting, they connect with the bachelor MT members, a representative of the Faculty Council, the assessor, and a MeCo.

Not every master’s programme has an MT member. However, in general, one master’s student from a one-year academic master (AcMa) and one master’s student from a two-year research master (ReMa) take part in the BoS.

Programme Advisory Committee member (PAC)

The PAC is the advisory body within the programme and monitors the programme board. The PAC consists of 2 to 5 students (depending on the size of the master’s programme) and several staff members. The main task of the PAC is to discuss the quality of education. As a PAC member, students collect the opinions of their fellow students, gather complaints, and provide advice on education-related issues.

If there are matters that affect multiple programmes within the faculty, these can be discussed in the Educational Committee (EC). There is one EC for the AcMa and one for the ReMa. The EC AcMa consists of 6 students and staff members, and the EC ReMa consists of 7 students and staff members.

Other students working for your programme

In addition to the MT and PAC functions, there are other Participation members who are actively committed to the master’s programmes.

Faculty Council

For example, think of the seven student members of the Faculty Council (FR)! They represent students at the faculty level and meet regularly with the Faculty Board. Want to know more about the FR? Check out the Faculty Council page.