Skip to content

Issues regarding the organization of the 5th semester

Scope: organization and selection of seminars, practical courses and elective subjects
Goal: collect/document issues in order to improve for next year

How much of this is justified is still unclear

Issues

Seminars and Practical Courses

  • Few practical courses
    • enough slots for this semester, but small range of topics
    • most likely going to increase
  • Late planning
    • the list was "done" one week before the start of the semester, selection of seminars and practical courses will start on Oct 10th
    • students need to be able to plan their semester earlier
    • instructors might want to prepare for attendees individually + definitely need to know exact numbers
    • counter argument: "students don't want to be concerned with this during their exams"
      — general disagreement (but there's still a lot of time in between)
    • the discussion amongst the professors seems to have been late as well (~ end of previous lecture period)
  • Central registration
    • not communicated well
      • result: some seminars already full → no opportunity for CS to select them
    • needs general improvement (fairness, waiting list?, students can set preferences/priorities?)
    • inconsistent time frames for registration
      • possible worst case (that actually happened): some seminars already full while people with later registration time frames haven't had a chance to register yet

Elective Subjects

  • (many elective subjects in summer term)
  • small range of topics (this semester it's 4 out of 6; at least less than "promised")
  • some cancelled because of missing resources (ATN, InSys)

Affected Groups

  • teaching (early registration necessary for preparation)
  • people who depend on finishing their degree in the regular study period

Consequences so far

  • some seminars can't be chosen by CS students because they are already full
  • some students are planning to extend their study time to be able to choose the subjects they are interested in

Responses are not wrong but also not very constructive:

"We expect nobody to finish in the regular study period"

"There are no guarantees that you can always choose what you want"

Details

Regarding "small range of topics to choose from"

Currently no way out because of missing resources, hopefully growing with more professorships

Two sides:

  • offering more is expensive
  • more choice is in the interest of students

There's some missed potential amongst elective subjects:

Registration for Seminars

The goal seems to be to centralize the registration, with the following yet to be cleared:

  • how fair can this be?
    • first come first serve seems to be preferred over grade based selection
  • how to deal with people changing their decision? (waiting list, list of preferred seminars)

Sources for inspiration:

Current Suggestion

  • Professors are asked for their plans at the beginning of a semester
  • The list of seminars should be complete halfway through the semester
  • Students are informed about the seminars at the end of the lecture period, enabling them to use the lecture-free period for preparation
Edited by Gerret