2023-12-13 14:16:00
Questions have been raining down at UMons since Professor Guillaume Vermeylen offered a bonus point to students attending the conference given by Elio Di Rupo. A fairly usual “reward” according to the principal concerned who is constantly looking for solutions to attract as many students as possible to the various conferences organized as part of his course. For the parents of some of them, this approach is quite clumsy less than a year before the elections, enough to liven up the debates within the University. The latter ensures that no political party is highlighted through its educational approaches.
Organizing a conference on Wallonia’s recovery plans is the objective that Professor Guillaume Vermeylen had in bringing Elio Di Rupo to the premises of the University of Montoise. “Objectively, Elio Di Rupo is a suitable personality to give such a conference. He actually worked as part of the recovery plan and might have shared his expertise with the students,” confides Professor Guillaume Vermeylen. “I try as much as possible to offer a practical aspect to students in addition to the theoretical lessons seen in class. For my macro-economics course, it was relevant to organize a conference on Wallonia’s recovery plans, a subject which covers 80% of the course I give to BAC2.”
For UMons and its professor, there is absolutely no question of particular favoritism. Such a conference has already been organized in the presence of other personalities. Latest examples to date: the arrivals of Willy Borsus (MR), Thomas Dermine (PS), and Céline Tellier (Ecolo) for the transition. “In relation to the upcoming election year, we can ask ourselves the question of penalizing our students by depriving them of this type of activity on the grounds of upcoming elections. Should we prohibit this type of practical illustration from course content for students enrolled in an academic year with elections?”, asks the university.
A usual approach
Rector Philippe Dubois confirms that it is relatively common, as in other institutions, for UMons teachers to illustrate the content of their course through interventions by external figures, including politicians. “Teachers try to encourage their students to participate in these conference debates with small bonuses,” adds UMons. Small bonus which is also frequently used by Professor Guillaume Vermeylen. “I have been teaching for over ten years. Throughout these years, I have regularly put in place incentives to ensure that more students come to our activities. My goal is to open their minds to the real world, outside of the classroom. By allowing students to have a bonus for going to an activity, I also want them to realize the interest of these activities in order to encourage them to come to the next ones even without a bonus. It is with this in mind that I put the bonus point system in place for Elio Di Rupo’s conference,” explains Professor Guillaume Vermeylen.
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For Professor Guillaume Vermeylen, this controversy is “just a storm in a glass of water”. “I don’t want to penalize students who don’t attend the presentation by, for example, asking a question regarding the lecture during the exam. This is why I opted for the bonus point. This system works quite well among students and only affects 5% of the exam mark.”
Will the controversy get the better of this bonus point? The question has not yet been addressed by the professor and the management of UMons who will decide in the coming days the fate given to this initiative.
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