Student party ONS Leiden is organising a unique collaboration with the seven faculties at Leiden University on Tuesday morning, to enable the recording and digital publication of lectures for every student in Leiden. Many students are stuck with an old-fashioned and inflexible education system, while the 21st century has started 18 years ago. ONS Leiden, therefore, advocates university-wide recordings of lectures.

In 2016, immediately after its establishment, ONS Leiden asked the Executive Board to offer online lectures at a university-wide level. After years of not achieving its objective at the central level, the party is tired and taking steps on the decentralised level in order to finally make digital lectures possible.

Alderik Oosthoek, chairman of the ONS faction in the University Council, argues: “An active student life or studying with a disability is often incompatible with the old-fashioned structure of education, whereby a lecture can only be followed physically. Most of the Dutch universities have been offering online lectures for years, so that students can (re)watch the lecture at a suitable time, with good study results and positive assessments as a result”. The money and the facilities to record lectures have been available for years, but many faculty directors keep the plans at bay, out of unfamiliarity with the possibilities and the many advantages.

On Tuesday morning, the ONS Leiden factions will submit a memo to the boards of the seven individual faculty councils. On the grounds of the Higher Education Act, the board members must comply with the students’ appeal within three months.