Examining Board of Geography, Planning, and Environment

The Examination Board for the Bachelor’s programmes in Geografie, Planologie, Milieu (Geography, Planning, and Environment) and the Master’s programmes in Environment and Society Studies, Human Geography and Spatial Planning is charged with:

determining objectively and expertly whether a student meets the conditions set by the Education and Examination Regulations (EER) with regard to the knowledge, insight, and skills required for completing a degree;
appointing examiners, the testing policy, including establishing regulations and guidelines for the proper course of affairs during exams, interim examinations and tests, providing guidelines and instructions concerning the results of interim examinations;
the admission of students to the degree programme and the granting of exemptions;
allowing or rejecting the substitution of courses in the degree programme, as established in the Education and Examination Regulations (EER), by other courses (such as courses taken at other universities in the Netherlands and abroad);
requests for exceptions to the Education and Examination Regulations (EER) applied to the Examination Board by students;
revoking the right of a student involved to take one or more examinations to be designated by the Examination Board in case the student or external student commits fraud;
the handling of complaints regarding these matters.

All other degree programme or curriculum issues that are not related to the above can be submitted to the relevant course coordinator, programme coordinator, or the programme committee.

Members Examining Board:

Dr R.G. van Melik (chair)
Dr I.V. Barba Lata (secretary)
Dr S. Lenferink
Prof. dr I. Visseren-Hamakers

Advisory members:

L. van Daal MSc (student advisor Bachelor GPM and Pre-Masters programme GPE)
S. Frijnts MSc (student advisor Bachelor GPM and Pre-Masters programme GPE)
M.D. Schambach MA (student advisor of the master programmes)

External member

Prof. Dr M. van Leeuwen (CICAM)

Support

The Examination Board is supported by Management Assistant J.J.M. Beset

Contact
Examining Board Geography, Planning and Environment
Radboud University
Postbus 9108
NL-6500 HK Nijmegen
Tel. +31-(0)24 - 361 19 25
exciegpm@ru.nl

Frequently asked questions

How do I request my diploma?

All information about requesting diplomas can be found here.

When should you contact the Examining Board?

Below are a number of situations in which you may consider contacting the Examining Board. However, it is always advisable that you first contact the student advisor from the degree programme to check whether a formal process with the Examining Board is necessary or desirable. If that is the case, then you will lodge a formal complaint by letter against the relevant decision or submit a request.

You feel that there is something wrong with the way in which an assessment took place and are of the opinion that the lecturer did not offer a suitable solution.
You think that you were unjustly denied admission to an educational session or assessment.
There are special circumstances that played a role in a rejection or exclusion that was the proper course of action according to the rules.
You feel that special circumstances justify that you should receive an additional opportunity to sit an assessment or test and find that waiting for the next, standard opportunity puts you at an unfair disadvantage.
You cannot be present for your graduation ceremony and would therefore like to pick up your diploma from the reception desk. You must submit a request with the reason why you were unable to attend the graduation ceremony.
You want to have your electives approved.

What do I state in a request?

First and foremost, it is important that the subject of the request is clear and that your name, student number, e-mail address, and address information are stated.

The Examining Board can only process the request if the student incorporates the necessary relevant information into the request themselves, such as:

the position of the lecturer or the thesis supervisor in the matter;
the position of the study advisor;
documents of proof that support the special circumstances of the student.

With requests for exceptions to the EER, an actual printout of the study results (from OSIRIS) must also be sent as a supplementary document.

For requests regarding taking electives outside of Radboud University, the Examining Board will assess the suitability of these electives. A course description or a link to the webpage containing this course description must be added to such requests.

How do I submit my request?

In order to ensure that each request is reliably documented, the Examining Board does not accept verbal or e-mail request submissions. In order to submit a request, it is of great importance that all documents be available in digital format (preferably a pdf). The request must then be uploaded via this form.

How long will it take before I hear from the Examining Board?

The secretarial office is responsible for further processing requests to the Examining Board. The Examining Board meets roughly once every six weeks (with the exception of the holiday period). For this reason, the time frame within which the Examining Board responds can vary. Therefore, please allow for some time for the Examining Board to process your request.

Can I appeal a decision from the Examining Board?

Appealing a decision made by the Examining Board can be done at the Examination Appeals Board of Radboud University. Such appeals are serious matters and are legal in nature, during which both the complainant and the defendant must appear to plead their case before the Appeals Board after they have first attempted to resolve the issue outside of a legal environment. See also the Student Charter. The address of the Examination Appeals Board is:

Examination Appeals Board
Comeniuslaan 4
NL-6525 HP Nijmegen.

Where can I find the graduation dates?

The dates for the graduation ceremonies and information about the ceremonies can be found here.

The student is expected to be present on the graduation ceremony date chosen by the student. Only in exceptional cases, and before the invitations have been sent by Diploma Services, the student can choose a different graduation ceremony date by submitting a request to Examination Board by means of the request/objection form.

If you know in advance that you will not be able to attend a certain graduation ceremony, you can indicate this when requesting the diploma, so that your diploma can be presented on another occasion.

How does a graduation ceremony work?

The process of the graduation ceremony is partly the responsibility of the Examination Board.

For the presentation of the Bachelor's diplomas, a number of candidates are asked in advance to present the results of their research to a broader audience, and to reflect on their experiences in the Bachelor's programme. The diplomas are presented afterwards.

When the Master's diploma is awarded for the Master's programmes in Environment and Society Studies, Human Geography and Spatial Planning, including ”Planet Europe”, the graduation ceremony involves a public defence and the session takes place according to the following procedure:

the student is invited by the chair to sit behind the lectern in the hall;
the supervisor, or a substitute, asks a few informative questions about the Master’s thesis;
the student answers these questions;
the supervisor, or a substitute, then addresses the student personally (laudatio);
this is followed by signing and awarding the diploma.

The graduation ceremonies of GPM are in principle held on the campus, with guests and catering, unless the prevailing corona measures oblige us to choose otherwise. For the latter corona measures, see this webpage.