Binding study advice

About Binding Study Advice (BSA)

A binding study advice (BSA) can be either positive or negative. If the advice is positive, students are permitted to continue their study programme. If the advice is negative, the student will not be permitted to continue their study programme at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS).

A student will recieve a negative BSA if they do not obtain the mandatory credits by the end of the first year of their degree programme. The BSA norm for AUAS programmes ranges from 40 to 50 credits. Please see the Teaching and Examination Regulations (OER, chapter 5, article 5.1) for information concerning the total credits required according to the BSA norm for your degree programme.

A BSA will also be issued for students who deregister in the course of the academic year.

Students will in principle receive a BSA at the end of their first academic year. An exception to this is possible: a BSA may be suspended until the end of the second year of enrolment, due to personal circumstances on the part of the student. When the BSA is suspended the Examination Board issues a negative BSA at the end of the second year of enrolment to students who have failed to successfully complete the propaedeutic year examination by the end of their second year of enrolment.

Notification of the Binding Study Advice

The examination board will send the BSA to your AUAS email account in the month of July or August. Please ensure that your AUAS email account does not exceed its data limit in July and August as this will cause the email to be rejected.

This email therefore serves as the BSA as referred to in Articles 7.2 and 7.3 of the Teaching and Examination Regulations (OER). It will also be possible to see your BSA in SIS immediately after this email has been sent. To access it, log into your SIS account and then select 'St.advice/dipl' and 'My study advice'.

Binding Study Advice warning

If in the course of the academic year a student appears to be in danger of receiving a negative BSA, the student will receive a warning to this effect. The warning will be sent to the student by email via SIS and will also contain an explanation of the consequences that a negative BSA will have for the student.

Consequences of the Binding Study Advice

Students who receive a positive BSA can continue their study programme.

Students who receive negative BSA will not be permitted to re-enrol in the same degree programme or in programmes that share the same propaedeutic phase. They will also no longer be entitled to receive student financial assistance as from the next academic year. In that case, it is crucial to contact the Education Executive Agency (Dutch: DUO) on time to cancel your financial assistance.

Personal circumstances

When issuing BSA to a student, personal circumstances may be taken into account. In that case, there must be a causal relationship between the personal circumstances and the fact that the student has fallen behind in their studies. In practice, this means that the personal circumstances must be demonstrable and have caused the student to fall behind. If such personal circumstances arise, the student must notify the student counsellor as quickly as possible. When the time comes for issuing BSA, the student counsellor can then advise the examination board regarding personal circumstances.

Naturally a student will also be expected to stay in touch with the student counsellor for as long as the personal circumstances apply.
These personal circumstances may also have been caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Lodging an appeal with the Examination Appeals Board

Students can lodge an appeal against a negative BSA with the Examination Appeals Board (COBEX). If a student does not agree with the Examination Board's decision to issue a negative BSA, they can submit a notice of appeal to the Objections, Appeals and Complaints Office (Dutch: Loket beroep, bezwaar en klacht) within six weeks of having been notified of the negative BSA.

You can logde your appeal here (choose one of the three choices and follow the form):
- you are a student and in possession of an HvA account
- you are not a student and do not have an HvA account
- You have an request for Central Student Offices (CSA)

After the notice of appeal has been submitted to COBEX, there will be an inquiry to determine whether an amicable settlement can be reached between the student and the examination board. If no settlement is possible, COBEX will examine the notice of appeal. During the appeal procedure, the student may not be enrolled at the AUAS and therefore is also not entitled to receive student financial assistance.

For more information, please refer to the Legal Affairs page.