Abstract:

In the seventies of the last century one could afford to be an eternal student. That time is over now. Too many years of study are seen as very problematic in the Netherlands. But decreasing study time is not an easy job. The pathways in education, mostly linear by nature, that have been created in the past, don´t fit with the settled goals in existing circumstances. Will the emphasis on study speed and the fining of students as well as universities for not achieving the targets solve the problem? Do we know how to get students up to speed?
This article researches whether the idea of developing passages of education for students with various study behavior might make a valuable contribution to the discussion about study speed and study time. Thinking about speed becomes a design problem by asking the question how time and space have been brought about in a historical context and from the perspective of the student. Time and space are created in three ways: 1. by strengthen the weak links so as to create smoother passages; 2. by designing leeway to repair the time-path of a passage in case of disturbances and 3. by political choices, that legitimate the passages and, therefore, the time, space and risk that different groups of students will get.
Creating passages is not possible without facing dilemmas, as tehy are usually suitable for a selected group of students. Passages are continually changing because of developments in technology, economics, politics and social and cultural factors. They are never finished. As the context changes, the journey will change. The direction of change isn’t always clear beforehand.
The idea of passages of education is adopted from the theory of passages that the cultural filosopher Peter Frank Peters had developed in his thesis: Time, innovation and mobilities: travel in technological cultures (2006). He developed his theory in relation to traffic. I will present this theory and explain how to apply it to education and will make clear that the theory is a starting point for another discussion about education: travel cannot simply be reduced to getting from A -> B; it is an integrated part of live. And so is study.

Imke Everts (1953) studied econometrics and operations research at the University of Groningen. Her career started in this field of research. Then she worked several years as a system consultant. The last years she teaches operations management at The Hague University. She is a member of the philosophical research group of this university. During several years she joined the curriculum committee of her department.

Keywords:

Passages, time and space, study speed, design problem.