Board of Examiners

The Board of Examiners is responsible for the quality of all exams and master's degrees conferred by the Graduate School of Natural Sciences. The Board appoints examiners, monitors the quality of tests and exams within the school, approves individual study programmes, and decides whether a student has fulfilled all requirements to qualify for a degree.

Requests to the Board of Examiners

On several occasions throughout your studies, you may need permission from the Board of Examiners. All requests are to be submitted through Osiris Student. In Osiris Student, you will select 'MyCases', 'Start Case' and then choose the appropriate request type. The following types of requests are available:

  1. Exemptions (EER art 5.13)
  2. Approval of not UU taught courses (EER art 3.7)
  3. Approval of (elective) courses/study programme (EER art. 3.6.9)
  4. Approval of a profile
  5. Approval of a TWIN programme (EER art. 3.8, 5.13)
  6. Delay of graduation date (EER art. 6.1)
  7. Delay of research or thesis project (EER, appendix)
  8. Extra testing provision (EER art. 5.8) (includes requests for online proctoring, go to this webpage for more information about online proctoring)
  9. Other requests

For all other questions, the Secretary of the board can be contacted through: science.boardofexaminers.gsns@uu.nl.

The board is composed of: 

  • Dr. A.M. Vredenberg - Chair
  • Prof. dr. F.J. (Floris) Bex - Member, Artificial Intelligence
  • Prof. dr. ir. G.J.M. (Guus) Velders - Member, Physics
  • Dr. G. (Guido) Bacciagaluppi - Member, History and Philosophy of Science
  • Prof. dr. mr. H. (Henry) Prakken - Member, Information Science and Computer Science
  • Prof. dr. F.M.F. (Frank) de Groot - Member, Chemical Sciences
  • Prof. dr. E.P (Erik) van den Ban - Member, Mathematical Sciences
  • Dr. M. (Michael) Behrisch - Member, Applied Data Science
  • Dr. J.A. (Jan Andries) Post - External Member
  • B. (Björn) Scheenstra - Secretary

Tasks and responsibilities:

The Board of Examiners of the Graduate School of Natural Sciences (GSNS) is mandated by law to uphold the quality of tests and exams within the School. The Board of Examiners has eight members; a chair, six scientific staff members who each represent a cluster of Master's programmes (and chair an executive panel if so indicated) and one non-Faculty member. The Board of Examiners is supported in its work by a Secretary. The legal responsibilities of the Board of Examiners include organisation and coordination of examinations, granting exemptions and approval of final achievements for individual Master's programmes, and handing out MSc-diplomas and supplements at graduation ceremonies.

Official documents

The GSNS has a general statute concerning its 'Rules and Regulations' (also available in Dutch) , in which all matters concerning the appointment and organisation of the Board of Examiners, and also its responsibilities concerning (final) examinations and the degree programme are laid down.