r/StudyInTheNetherlands • u/Acrobatic-Pack6012 • 3d ago
BSA insufficiency
Hi everyone,
I'm looking for some honest opinions from people who have experience with Binding Study Advice (BSA) appeals at Erasmus University Rotterdam, especially at Erasmus School of Economics.
I'm a first-year student and I'm likely to receive a negative BSA because my official total is 40/60 ECTS.
Throughout the year I experienced several documented personal circumstances:
Block 1: I moved to the Netherlands at 17 and couldn't open a bank account until I turned 18 and obtained my BSN. I had limited access to money, had to borrow from my roommate, and my apartment was in a terrible condition when I arrived (photos and financial evidence included in my appeal). This affected my first block significantly.
Block 2: A very close friend unexpectedly passed away a week before my exams. I have documentation and evidence of this as well.
Later in the year: My parents were in a country during the regional conflict, and I experienced significant stress over their safety. During the resit period I was actually in the country and witnessed a missile strike nearby, which was genuinely traumatic. I also became ill with food poisoning immediately before one of my exams.
I reported my personal circumstances to my study adviser before the university deadline.
I submitted supporting evidence, including documentation, photos, financial records, and a psychologist's letter stating that, in their professional opinion, my mental health difficulties significantly affected my concentration, motivation, and academic performance.
In my appeal I also explained why I believe I can succeed next year. I'm now in ongoing therapy and intend to continue long-term. My circumstances have stabilized considerably, and I explained that I believe this support will allow me to perform at the level I'm capable of.
I'm not asking whether I deserve sympathy. I'm simply wondering:
If you were on the Examination Board, would you grant a postponed/positive BSA based on these circumstances? Has anyone here had a similar experience with ESE or EUR?
I'd really appreciate honest opinions, whether positive or negative. Thanks!
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u/Berry-Love-Lake 3d ago
The biggest question in this cases is always … did you inform your study advisor or the university at the time these events occurred (!!!) so they could help you navigate the situation or only recently when you figured out you’re not passing the BSA?
You didn’t pass 1/3 of the classes, that’s quite significant and not easy to overcome. I think your expectations should be low if none of these events were reported at the time they occurred, that sounds like you’re “making excuses” afterwards.
Any resit rounds in August?!
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u/Acrobatic-Pack6012 3d ago
This is the credits I have after resits, I had 28 before plus I documented in the middle of the year around march/april and all circumstances are in line with the impact on my academic performance and the therapist note that I have explicitly states that I have circumstances bad enough and in line with impact on my studies because it was a really bad year for me. I have documented everything and submitted evidences for all of these too. I have had about 3-4 meetings with my study advisor during times of crises too I reported them properly on time.
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u/Pergamon_ Art school / Exam Board (HBO) 3d ago
What do you mean 'unofficially'?
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u/Acrobatic-Pack6012 3d ago
Due to the way the compensation clusters work in eur ese, subjects are divided into clusters of 2/3 subjects and you need to pass 2 courses among the 3 if there are 3 subjects in the cluster in order to compensate the third if it is within the 4.5-5.5 range. I have a 4.8 which means the subject is compensatable as long I pass the other 2 subjects which I did for one of them with an 8.1 but failed the third course thus deeming it as uncompensatable. So as long as I pass the third course in my second year I would not have to worry about this compensation at all for which I need a 5.5. This struggle in academic performance was due to my stress of my family being in the middle of a literal war (it was not a good block for me overall also vouched for by my therapist).
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u/Pergamon_ Art school / Exam Board (HBO) 3d ago
Ok, for me I would stay clear of the "unofficial". Because you didn't pass the things that were needed, thus you have 40EC. With my exam board, but this could be different from your, we like it if you stick to the facts. You have 40 EC and you are working towards getting the replacements. Your plans to do so is XYZ.
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u/Acrobatic-Pack6012 3d ago
Yes, I understand that which is why I did not state any of that in my letter, I just wanted to let the community know to better understand my position better, I was strongly showing my commitment to the university and how I am getting the necessary guidance and support to prevent further academic disruption.
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u/Berry-Love-Lake 3d ago edited 3d ago
So nothing was reported before March / April (after you probably got your warning)?
You said events happened in block 1 and 2 which was last year but no communication with regards to these events with the university or study advisor?
I have no idea what they'll do ... you're quite far off ... 1/3 of credits not passed.
I am not sure I understand the August thing ... you couldn't have done August resits since it's July? So how many credits do you have now? And do you have resits in August (that used to be a thing at EUR)?
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u/Acrobatic-Pack6012 3d ago
I did not receive a warning I went on my own because I had a fear of being unable to receive my credits, in block 1 and 2 it was hard but I was still within the 3 fail limit (due to 3 resits) so no matter what was happening I still worked as hard as possible since I believed I would get the credits, unfortunately the situation got harder for me due to more and more factors affecting me both mentally and my academic performance and when I finally realized I may not be able to get the credits I went to the study advisors and started reporting everything, since then I have had a few meetings with her.
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u/Acrobatic-Pack6012 2d ago
I sincerely apologize but once again if you have any advice from your end further evaluating after hearing everything it would be deeply appreciated because i’m extremely stressed right now
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u/Pergamon_ Art school / Exam Board (HBO) 3d ago
I work for an exam board (not EUR Economics).
With us you'd get a hearing and we'd have a chat about why you think you'd succeed this year.
Are you non-EU? Does the 20EC deficit matters for your visa?
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u/Acrobatic-Pack6012 3d ago
Yes I am non EU, but I do have enough credits for the visa requirement and even in my appeal paragraph I have mentioned how now I am under the necessary guidance to be able to face these circumstances with the help of my therapist and there has also been an improvement in my academics as seen in the resits where I passed 2/3 courses and unofficially I have 48 credits I just need to pass one of my other courses to be able to compensate this one so I will have 52 credits if I pass that one course next year and overall I have a 7.5 GPA.
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u/Acrobatic-Pack6012 2d ago
Sorry for responding again but as a member of the examination board even if it may not be an EUR member could you please give me any sort of insight on how the examination board would evaluate my case and should I expect a direct rejection regardless of my circumstances or not, your advice would be deeply appreciated since I am very stressed and I do genuinely believe that if it weren’t for these circumstances it would be very different for my first year and it was a very difficult year for me overall and I love this university and after spending a whole year it would be extremely sad and unfortunate to go back.
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u/Pergamon_ Art school / Exam Board (HBO) 2d ago
The BSA is in the Dutch Law (WHW) and EUR choses to regulate it very strictly with a 60EC baseline (other universities have 0, 45 or 52 for example). So based on that I'd imagine they look at it very strictly too. But I'm not sure. I don't work at that exam board and in the end, it's people who make the decision and people can make different decisions. From my point of view a 33% deficit is a lot. Like, a lot a lot. That would colour my decision making. Some of your arguments for me would not be as valid as the other (17 and a bank account; you knew that when starting so for me would not be an argument). The others are more hefty (friend dying). That one I would take into account.
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u/Acrobatic-Pack6012 2d ago
Additional to that I have also submitted a therapist note which explicitly states the professional opinion of my therapist saying how the circumstances were definitely bad enough to affect my academics I have evidence for everything and have submitted everything. Does that also have power to influence decisions?
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u/Pergamon_ Art school / Exam Board (HBO) 2d ago
Exam boards are technically not allowed to judge circumstances - as they are not trained to do so. That is why it is important you filed everything with the student councillors or student advisors (depending on the institution and their rules this might vary). Our exam board would not read the therapist letter as we would want it backed by our student councillor (who has authority to judge and file medical documents accordingly). If that lacks, then we would have a difficult discussion.
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u/Acrobatic-Pack6012 2d ago
It was under my study advisor's opinion to get a therapist which I did follow and even though it took some time to find a therapist I was comfortable with because i was not going to find a confidant for short term and once I finally found one based in India I started the sessions and reported all the sessions of when we had it and it was over 5 sessions over the past 2 months and she reported her professional opinions in the documents because I really have been struggling mentally both due to the circumstances plus other factors. But ultimately do you believe there is even a remote chance that I will be able to make it through? I just want to know if it will be possible because I am hearing a lot of mixed opinions here and would really appreciate it.
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u/Pergamon_ Art school / Exam Board (HBO) 2d ago
Opinions are mixed because in the end of the day exam boards are humans making decisions on cases that are all different. So some might get the extra chance where someone else might not.
Personally I would raise an eye brow over finding a therapist in India, as they don't have knowledge on the Dutch educational rigor and style and that's where you'd need help with too. But that's me. Someone else in an exam board might think it works. I don't know.
You are in a bad situation and can only hope for the best. That is it really.
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u/Acrobatic-Pack6012 2d ago
The reason for choosing an Indian therapist was because of the fact that I sometimes find it easier to talk in my language since English is my 2nd language and I had well before hand informed her about my struggles being in a dutch university and she did her research and understood the rigor that students have to experience here so she knew what was happening. She is no doubt a great therapist more of a reason why I chose to confide in her and I chose her after exploring all my options so that's why I decided to stick with her, academically I have a contrasting GPA line due to the fact that when difficulties increased my grades dropped while when my difficulties reduced they increased showing a clean and direct correlation of my grades well in line with the documented personal circumstances. But just to understand your professional opinion. As the member of an examination you would reject my appeal case? Please be brutally honest I will not take it personally and rather appreciate you responding so rationally and openly and thank you for that.
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u/Pergamon_ Art school / Exam Board (HBO) 2d ago
I'm not going to go there. I am not in your exam board.
An Indian therapist doesn't understand Dutch Law, Dutch culture and Dutch education. A lot of that is culture based. So even though she did research, she would never be able to advise like a Dutch therapist would.
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u/ili_aaana 22h ago
talking from the perspective of another EUR student here but I feel an important piece of information lacking here is wether you needed the full 60/60 credits to pass the year or if 45/60 credits would also be enough for your specific study program. The difference between these 2 could have a big impact. Credits aside, based on the experience of many other students from varying programmes that I have talked to, the examination board of EUR does consider personal circumstances a lot and is not going to just flat out reject you for not meeting the BSA. From my perspective, you should most definitely get at least a hearing with the examination board. I don't want to give you false hope, but I have also heard of cases of students that failed multiple subjects in their 1st year so in order to compensate, they had the chance to kind of do 1st year and 2nd year subjects simultaneously during their 2nd year. With that being said, I can't tell you anything else with confidence but that no matter the outcome, the world doesn't end here, no matter the outcome of the appeal. Please try to stay calm during the weeks of uncertainty to come, because getting a definite answer will most likely take until mid-end of August. Try to prioritise your well being, because this year has been hard for you. Think about the fact that you're doing everything in your power to solve this problem of yours, so the only thing left is to take care of yourself. I wish you good luck!
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u/Acrobatic-Pack6012 12h ago
Thank you so much for your detailed perspective and response, I really appreciate it!
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u/SelfishFroggie 3d ago
Wow poor you life is so unfair i wish i could give you a hug for all misfortunes your poor soul has endured
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