What does a student assessor do?

‘As a student assessor, I have an advisory voice in board meetings. This means I receive the same documents as the board and am free to speak and advise during the consultations. Of course, my primary intention is to do so from a teaching or student perspective. It is an interesting task for a 4th-year PPLE student because PPLE is set up differently from the Bachelor's programme Law. PPLE started 10 years ago with small, intensive teaching and tutorial groups of just 15 people. Within Law, since last year, there has been an extra focus on small-scale and practical education thanks to the educational reform. PPLE has also had the newly introduced compulsory attendance at law schools for a long time. It is still considerably stricter at PPLE. Lessons can be learned from this.'

Is your PPLE background an advantage?

'I think it provides a fresh perspective. But sometimes I don't know certain details. Fortunately, I can put out my feelers at the student council and faculty study associations to pick up those details and opinions on certain things. Because I have a non-disclosure agreement, I don't go into topics discussed during a board meeting, but I globally discuss certain issues.'

What themes are essential for students?

'For students now, it's about flexibility and workload and the high expectations they experience from society and the university. How should they juggle that and at the same time lead an everyday student life? At the law school, I see many driven people. Nevertheless, these students, too, experience a very high level of pressure.

Together with the study associations, I am assessing the situation. As student assessor, I am also responsible for the umbrella association, which includes 3 board members from the faculty study associations besides me. The four of us are accountable for assessing grant applications addressed to the faculty for the year. We give informal advice on these applications.'

How do you prepare for a board meeting?

'On Fridays, I usually receive the documents. Because I only have 7.5 hours per week, I first focus on the documents that are relevant to me: those about education or student affairs. If I have time to spare, I also read the other documents because they may contain things related to education or student affairs. Sometimes I read something because I find it very interesting. You learn what is going on on the other side of the faculty, for example, in the field of research.'

You were previously president of the student council. Is the role similar?

'It is exceptional to be on the other side of the table. In the student council, your role is purely to represent student interests. You do that from a political role because you get elected. As a student assessor, you go through a selection process. In consultation with the student council, you eventually get elected. So, you represent students' interests but, at the same time, must find a balance between the administrative perspective and certain topics. That is more nuanced than from the student council. For example, you can understand the administrative perspective there, but that's not necessarily your job.'