The concept of ‘study success’ has many facets. A search on internet will yield different definitions for what study success means.

The term ‘study success’ is commonly used as a synonym for academic success rate: the percentage of students in a given cohort who obtain their degree. This is often linked to a specific period of time, for example, obtaining a bachelor’s degree within four years.

But study success encompasses more. It also involves the extent to which a student – who is motivated and in theory capable of taking a particular study programme – is supported to actually complete that programme. Key concepts in this aspect are the quality of the study programme and its associated study load.

Objectives

Like other universities, the University of Amsterdam wants to improve study success in the Bachelor's phase. Concrete aims and target figures to be achieved before 2014 have been formulated as part of a long-term agreement between the Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU) and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW).