Study Progress Monitor

As a part of the Dutch Immigration Law, Wageningen University & Research is obliged to inform the Immigration Naturalisation Service (IND) every year about the study progress of non-EU students with a Residence permit based on study. This is called the Study Progress Monitor.

What is the Study Progress Monitor?

A student from outside the EU must complete at least 50% of the study load per academic year. Otherwise, the university is required by Dutch Law to report this to the Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND). In that case, your residence permit will be cancelled by the IND. For more information see the website of the IND.

For students who start the academic year in September: you must obtain at least 30 credits (before 1 September) since each year has a study load of 60 credits. If you start your programme in February, you must obtain at least 15 credits before 1 September.

If a student does not meet this requirement, the IND can revoke the residence permit of the student, which means that the student has to return to his/her country. Only if the student can show an excusable reason (such as pregnancy or illness) an exemption will be made to this rule.

Timeframe

Wageningen University & Research will check how many credits you have obtained between September 1 and August 31 of each academic year. At the end of each academic year the University will inform the IND about the students who didn’t meet the requirements of the previous Academic Year.

The IND will cancel your residence permit and you have to leave the Netherlands as soon as possible.

Registration of marks

It is very important that the marks for all courses which you have passed are registered between September 1 and August 31. Marks which are not registered will not be taken into consideration.

It is your responsibility to ensure that the result is registered at SSC in time. If the mark has not been registered, please contact the secretary from the department or the contact person from the course to register the result as soon as possible, but no later than August 31.

If the marks are not registered in time, then you will not receive credits for the course. This may have serious consequences for not meeting the requirements for the study progress monitor.

Study Progress Norms

Depending on whether you started the programme in September or in February, the norm of the minimum required credits is different.
The number of credits will be based on registered credits between September 1 and August 31 of each academic year.

The university will check how many credits you have obtained in the 1st week of March and after period 5, and sends a warning to the students by e-mail, when you are at risk of not obtaining 50% of the credits.

Student category You will receive a warning if You must obtain at least the following credits before 1 September
First year student started programme 1 September you have obtained less than 18 credits after the re-examinations in February 30
First year student started programme 1 February you have obtained less than 10 credits after period 5 15
2nd year student you have obtained less than 18 credits after period 4 30

Excusable reasons for insufficient study progress:

It is possible that you experience some delay in your studies due to outside events that influence your studies. This delay may be caused by several reasons indicated below. In case you think that you have an excusable reason, please inform your study advisor and the student dean as soon as possible.

Examples of excusable reasons for insufficient study progress could be:

· Illness or pregnancy.
· Physical, sensory or other functional disorders.
· Exceptional family circumstances.
· Board membership which is approved by the Executive Board of Wageningen University & Research.

If you think that there are other reasons than mentioned above which could be an excusable reason, we advise you to make an appointment with the student dean as soon as possible.

If you report your reasons to the student dean, they will inform the Examination Commission which will decide whether this can be considered an excusable reason. If they accept the excusable reason, then as an exception, Wageningen University & Research will not notify the IND of the lack of progress of this student.