Strategy 2016

Contents1. Introduction...........................................................................................................................3

2. Strategy Statement...............................................................................................................4

2.1 Mission, vision and values of Student Representation....................................................4

2.2 SR structure....................................................................................................................5

2.3 Revision Strategy 2012...................................................................................................5

2.4 Evaluation Strategy 2012................................................................................................6

2.5 Strategy 2016..................................................................................................................7

3. Implementation.....................................................................................................................8

3.1. Elaboration of specific strategies....................................................................................8

3.2 Further initiatives...........................................................................................................11

4. Timeframe...........................................................................................................................12

4.1 Orientation & formulation...............................................................................................12

4.2 Planning & implementation............................................................................................13

4.3 Execution & measurement............................................................................................13

4.4 Evaluation, revision & formulation new Strategy...........................................................14

5. Limitations & future strategy...............................................................................................14

6. Final word...........................................................................................................................15

Appendix A: Indicators for representation measurement........................................................16

1. IntroductionRotterdam School of Management (RSM), Erasmus University Rotterdam has had a consistent ranking amongst Europe’s top 10 business schools. The quality of the education is a particular factor in this ranking. The Program Management therefore is very ambitious in holding high education standards at this university. An explicit exchange between every incorporated party is crucial.

Student Representation (SR) has the important responsibility to preserve and optimize a professional feedback exchange and act as an intermediary between students, professors and the Program Management. A structured and coordinated operation will guarantee clear communication flow between the three parties. This comes to expression in the evaluation and improvement proposals with the aim to improve the educational quality at RSM Erasmus University, for both, the BA and IBA program.

The student body is represented by the assigned SR course-representatives who receive feedback from the students in the specific course they are responsible for. The student representatives forward the feedback to the professor to discuss about the subject matters and decide on solutions, if necessary. During each trimester two meetings at least are organized in which course representatives and professors evaluate the course together. At the end of the trimester a report is composed evaluating the feedback from students, compiling it, and finally handing it to the Program Management. The purpose is to ensure that the management acknowledges our findings. This feedback system provides the Program Management with valuable information about professors and course content and consequently enables it to tackle difficulties and take corrective actions immediately in order to maintain a high quality of the learning environment.

Student Representation also improves the education through the Program Advisory. This SR function is subdivided into three different focus groups: General Studies, 7th Trimester and Examination and Tutoring.

It is aimed that each group consists of one student from every bachelor year, both IBA and BA. If necessary there will also be a master or a graduate student. By these focus groups, the SR is able to implement the point of view from students on broader related issues than a single course. Student Representation suggests improvements for the Program Management and helps them with student related questions.

Finally, the SR creates an impact on the educational quality through the presence in different commissions and councils:  Our aim is to be represented in the Faculty Council, Management Committee, Program Committee, and the University Council. By participation, the organization is able to communicate feedback between all stakeholders within the faculty and university. This is highly important for several issues which go beyond the scope of one course and therefore cannot be dealt by representatives. Through its activities, the SR is able to use the common point from the student body to implement it into the decision making of the faculty and university.

This document will provide insights into the board’s strategy of helping to increase our education’s quality. Moreover, it will present the way future boards will implement the strategy in our daily administration to ensure that our goal is achieved timely. This document is moreover meant to give direction to our members and especially to prospective boards of the SR until the goal is achieved. This strategy should therefore be used as a guideline for the policy plans of boards in the coming years.

2. Strategy Statement2.1 Mission, vision and values of Student RepresentationBefore describing our strategy 2016 and summarizing the previous strategy 2012, mission, vision and values of the SR will be stated. These will determine our ongoing direction and explain our greater cause.

MissionThe Student Representation’s mission is to improve the quality of the education at RSM Erasmus University by facilitating and improving the feedback exchange between the student body and faculty personnel.

VisionThe Student Representation wants to be a trustworthy, respected and acknowledged intermediary between the student body and faculty staff in all feedback exchange.

ValuesThe Student Representation will adhere to the RSM Code of Conduct in their daily administration and communication to student body and faculty staff. Additionally the organization will filter the feedback exchange for messages that are in violation with this code.  

2.2 SR structure

2.3 Revision Strategy 2012It is important to summarize the previous strategy in order to recognize the origins from Student Representation to further understand today’s significance of the organization and its operations. Furthermore, a transition between both strategies will be created and conclude with terminated and yet to finalize initiatives.

In 2008, the Studenten Vereniging (SV) of the BA courses and the IBA Student Representation (IBA SR) merged to form Student Representation as it persists today. In the same academic year, the previous strategy plan was composed and stated the final goal of maximizing the feedback exchange between the student body and faculty personnel by 2012. In this sense, SR aimed to intermediate, structure and co-ordinate the exchange by gathering feedback and assigning Student Representatives to all courses and representing bodies in the faculty.

The strategy of 2012 had several goals for the coming years. Looking back, it is noticeable that the mission of Student Representation is still “To improve the quality of the education at RSM Erasmus University by facilitating and improving the feedback exchange between the

Supervisory Board

Chairman

Comissioner of Internal Affairs/Treasurer

Social Event

SR Trip

Comissioner of Marketing & PR

Marketing and Public Relations

Lunch with your favorite professor

Web appearance

NewSRoom

Second Reader

Professor Awards

Program Advisory

General Studies

Examination & Tutoring

7th trimester:ExchangeInternship

Minor

Coordinator Representation BA

RepresentativesBA

Bachelor 1Bachelor 2Bachelor 3

Coordinator Representation IBA

RepresentativesIBA

Bachelor 1Bachelor 2Bachelor 3

Representing Bodies

University CouncilManagement Committee

Faculty CouncilUNiversity Council

student body and faculty personnel.” Another goal was to maximize the feedback exchange between the student body and faculty personnel. In the strategy 2012 great emphasis was on improving the feedback process between students and faculty personnel, by providing not only faculty personnel with feedback from students, but also provide students with feedback from the faculty. An important issue here was to improve the awareness and image of Student Representation among students. Therefore Marketing & Public Relations plays a significant role in achieving this goal. Another important aim was to increase the willingness of students to provide Student Representation with feedback. Hence, another goal for Marketing & Public Relations was communication of the advantages of our existence to students and to state the achievements of Student Representation. This communication could go through newsletter or updates on the website. Further initiatives were to organize social drinks for both faculty and students, to lower the barriers between students and personnel and to organize the Professor Awards at the end of each academic year.

2.4 Evaluation Strategy 2012Looking back at the goals mentioned in the Strategy 2012, SR has achieved most of these goals. The same mission is still carried as before. Besides this, SR has made improvements on giving feedback back to students about meetings with professors and Program Management; via newSRoom and our website. Achievements of the SR are also communicated through these channels. Also, all feedback reports, created for Program Management, of the previous years are stated on the website of Student Representation. Then, it is also became possible to leave feedback online through the new website and different discussion groups on Facebook in which student representatives proactively ask for opinions from students.

Important issue was to improve the awareness of Student Representation among students. During the academic year 2011/2012 a great improvement was made on this front. A change of the logo, and therefore the image, improved the awareness of Student Representation among students. Besides this progress, the position of the organization can still be enhanced with the goal of attaining an even greater awareness among students. The website was updated and therefore contributing to the new image of Student Representation, creating more awareness among students. Also, during the academic year 2010/2011 the organization of the Professor Awards was done in a very professional way and was a great success. However, there was still room for improvements. SR is able to bring faculty personnel and students together in one room in an informal matter and thus reducing the barriers to students and personnel. Another initiative was to organize more social drinks for students and faculty; this was done by organizing “Lunch with your favorite professor”. Here students and personnel could have an informal meeting in which they could get to know each other on a whole new basis. Here, SR was also able to lower the barriers between professors and students.

One important goal described in the Strategy 2012 was to increase the willingness of students to give feedback. Especially in Business Administration, students are not really willing to give their feedback about a specific course. In addition, the involvement of Dutch students is not enough within the organization as measured by the division between international and Dutch students. This causes that Dutch members feel underrepresented what makes it more difficult to get attention of BA students. Therefore, in the plan Strategy 2016, emphasis should be set on communicating the advantages and achievements of Student Representation to students. Thus, creating more willingness among students to improve their education by providing us with feedback and becoming a student representative.

2.5 Strategy 2016From the mission, vision and values, the first steps are derived in achieving our mission. This first step is called ‘Strategy 2016’ and is meant to give direction to the organization in the coming years. Every following board is strongly encouraged to come up with additional plans and initiatives.

2.5.1. “Substantial improvement of the quality of RSM curriculum”Raise the overall satisfaction level about the courses at RSM as measured by increased scores on the course evaluation surveys.

2.5.2. “Total awareness of the purpose and actions of Student Representation”Increase students’ awareness about the goals of the SR (measured by the feedback activity in terms of feedback forms online and in print). By reporting back to students of what has been changed and improved the SR could also raise awareness. This could be effective especially for BA students.  

2.5.3. “Transparent and consistent monitoring of the progress of representation”Create and maintain structured communication channels or a platform for observing the effects of the feedback process on the course quality. Provide opportunity for communicating the work and progress to external parties. (Students Program Management - Feedback forms, Reports, Discussions; Program Management Students - Summary of discussions, Improvement Implementation Plan concisely summarized and published on the SR blog)

2.5.4. “Unified standard of what constitutes high quality education”Ensure that the members of the SR are informed about the highest standards of educational quality in the academic elite, so RSM would not fall behind in terms of innovation. (Training).

2.5.5. “Strengthen the role and position of Program Advisory”Program Advisory must enjoy a greater role within the organization of Student Representation as well as in its external position. Therefore, its position will be centralized between various Governing Bodies at the faculty and university likewise.

2.5.6.”Develop the representation task to a broader scope”Today, SR representatives are mainly active in the core courses of the curriculum. Our aim is to enlarge this area by including projects such as the Bachelor Thesis or the Interim Project.

2.5.7. “Expanding operations of Student Representation”The organization aims to give students a voice. So far this opportunity has only been provided at Bachelor courses of RSM. As a result, the board intends to execute the representation within Master studies at RSM and furthermore possibly expand to other faculties at Erasmus University.

2.5.8. “Increased cooperation among different study programs”Increase the involvement of BA students in the activities of the Student Representation in order to reach an appropriate balance among the SR members coming from the two study programs.

2.5.9. “Develop an internal communication within the organization to a better level”An internal communication has to be improved within the organization. This entails the communication within executing bodies of the board and commissioners as well as an improved dialogue and discussion sent to every member of the organization.

3. ImplementationThis chapter will discuss the implementation of the Strategy 2016. Figure 1 below provides an overview of the SR’s position during its operations of the feedback exchange between student body and faculty personnel with the final goal of improving the quality of education.

It is important to note that SR will not only mediate the feedback of students on the education given at the faculty, but the organization will also help the faculty to communicate to the student body. Furthermore, the importance of obtaining feedback from our stakeholders is recognized on the performance to constantly improve our own performance. Below all overview is discussed in more detail.

3.1. Elaboration of specific strategies

3.1.1. “Substantial improvement of the quality of RSM curriculum”

Student Representatives should be made aware of the evaluation survey scores of their respective courses over time, which should be viewed in conjunction with past reports as preparation for the midterm and final meetings with the professor or course coordinator of the course. This would allow identifying the factors that were the cause of dissatisfaction in the past and help ensure that a certain level of quality is maintained for every course. As the number of students in both BA and IBA increases every year, it should be debated if the number of feedback forms has to be increased and what is the extent of the increased role of online feedback channels such as Facebook. The Representatives should make an effort to incorporate such feedback in their preparation for the meeting by transferring it to the classical feedback forms with the permission of the students giving feedback. Dutiful and well-reasoned representation process will ensure that the students and the professor are able to reach a feasible consensus, which enables the long-term stability of the various course properties.

3.1.2. “Total awareness of the purpose and actions of Student Representation”

It is important that students know about issues that Student Representation has improved in the past. With these improvements in mind, students will recognize the relevance of the organization and are more likely to believe in its power and responsibility. The following channels can be used to report back to students: email, the SR website, Blackboard or RSM

Faculty personnelStudent RepresentationStudent body

Today. Furthermore, an automotive reply should be created for students who send their feedback. It should not only thank for the cooperation but indicate major changes and improvement the organization was able to establish. Furthermore, a link to midterm/end report will be given to the SR website. Yet, facing the fact that only a minor proportion of students informs themselves on the SR website, it is important to create a short document with the most important points the organization improved in the last years. This can be shared on Blackboard (with permission) and/or RSM Today. The board of SR and every member is welcomed to suggest and introduce new ways of communicating these achievements.

3.1.3. “Transparent and consistent monitoring of the progress of representation”

The IBA coordinator will create stronger relationships with all Student Representatives. This will be achieved by talking informally, on weekly basis, with the representative. Becoming friends from the beginning of the year will, provide better quality of the reports because students are motivated to work harder where informal settings are set.

3.1.4. “Unified standard of what constitutes high quality education”

During the training process, the Board Members who have assumed the role of the trainers, should inform the new Representatives of what constitutes high quality courses as that would give more valuable base of knowledge when receiving feedback and meeting the professor. The new Student Representatives should be familiarized with the typical determinants of good quality for a course - sufficient coverage of the learnable material, observable structure of the course, links with the application of the learned knowledge in its respective professional and academic fields, fair grading and predefined grading criteria, and the normal distribution of the grades for the course. In addition, the Representatives should follow the media to inform themselves of the latest developments in education for the top ranked academic institutions of the world.

3.1.5. “Strengthen the role and position of Program Advisory”

The activity of Program Advisory was introduced into the function of Student Representation in the academic year of 2011/2012. Its main task is to collect feedback for relevant issues outside of the Bachelor courses. Therefore, the categories have been classified in accordance to the three committees: General Studies, 7th trimester and Exams&Tutoring.

In order to maintain the success of its position, the relevance has to be strengthened. Within the SR, the function must enjoy high importance and monitoring by the current board and every stakeholder involved. It is important that the right amount of students will be recruited to become active in the Program Advisory. An extended distribution of every year (1st, 2nd, 3rd and possibly 4th year students) as well as studies (BA, IBA, preferably also Pre-Master and Master students) has to be achieved by its current members to be able to represent all kinds of perspectives. Program Advisory will have to undergo constant improvements in order to develop to an optimal instrument of enhancing the program.

The external role of Program Advisory will be improved by centralizing its position between the Governing Bodies University Council, Faculty Council, Management Committee and Program Committee. All given bodies have to be connected; whereas Student Representation and especially Program Advisory can take a central position. It will do so by jointly influencing the policy of the program and its management. Furthermore, it will enable a strong cooperation and exchange among student members. Regular meetings will be

scheduled to enhance communication flow and ease the information exchange in order to clearly lay out the responsibilities of the organizations. This way major topic replications and overlapping with external committees can be prevented.

The final goal is to give the student point of view more weight. Students are encouraged to share their ideas and participate with Program Advisors. This state can only be reached when the committee enjoys a higher awareness among students. Similar to the IBA and BA representation, this task has to be promoted well when recruiting. Moreover, students have to be provided with specific points that were improved with the help of Program Advisory, thus enhancing the relevance among students. Finally, through a tight relationship with various Governing Bodies as well as Program Management, the role of Student Representation can be improved significantly.

3.1.6.”Develop the representation task to a broader scope”

The board aims at advancing the representation scope to other projects on top of currently served core courses of the Bachelor studies. Main focus will have to be laid on projects such as the Bachelor Thesis and the Interim Project.

Students writing their thesis choose their research topic from a pool of given propositions. These propositions can further be divided into sub-topics which are being supported by a personal tutor. It will not be possible for SR to represent each tutor due to their high number. Yet, Student Representation will assign 3 representatives to gather general feedback about entire project, tutors and an overall handling of matters.

The Interim Project is a 5 ECTS research course that will be combined with the Minor project. As there are currently no student representatives for this program yet, it is our goal to give students a voice here as well. Representatives will be in close contact with the coordinators and act as intermediary to students.

3.1.7. “Expanding operations of Student Representation”

It is Student Representation’s intention to give students a voice. However, this opportunity could have only been provided to Bachelor students at RSM so far. As a result, the board proposes and recommends expanding the operations of SR to other faculties as well as Master studies. Clearly, SR has not reached an optimized position. Yet, SR has attained the relevant knowledge in order to effectively help introducing similar organizations to a broader target group of students. The members of the organization know about the critical points of organizing a representation body and can emphasize on essential facts and necessities.

The newly developed organizations will be run by the head organization of SR and will not be seen as external subsidiaries. Together with a detailed execution plan in accordance with representatives of the other program, the structure of the newly developed organization and its cooperation with the already developed SR for IBA and BA studies can be organized and regulated.

An enlargement to Master studies can be more difficult due to a different structure of study organization. Nevertheless, it serves as a relevant expansion within the Rotterdam School of Management. Before introducing such a new representation opportunity, a clear execution and implementation plan has to be composed together with the management of the specific Master studies. It is recommended to start with only one or two Master studies to gain experience in its operations and management. The board suggests considering Master studies like CEMS, Marketing or Finance & Investment.

When expanding to another faculty, it has to be considered whether an already established representation body exists. Nevertheless, in cooperation with SR, it is possible to set up an improved organization. Expertise in running and managing such an organization can be shared and leveraged with the aim of attaining a higher awareness and thus be able to more effectively improve the quality of education at this faculty also. The board suggests expanding to the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication because close relationships do already exist between the two programs. In addition to this, the Erasmus School of Economics can be seen as a relevant step of expansion.

3.1.8. “Increased cooperation among different study programs”

Ever since SR IBA and SV have merged, it has been a major interest of both parties to create a balanced working situation. As, students of the IBA program are known to be in a majority, it is important to maintain the goal of attracting an increased number of BA students and continue their involvement and activity within the organization. Following this strategy will ensure to reach an appropriate balance among SR members which will improve the quality of performance, the impact of the organization’s activities as well as it creates an enhanced and more diverse working atmosphere.

3.1.9. “Develop an internal communication within the organization to a better level”

It is aimed to establish a level of communication through which board members know about every on-going activity within the committees and vice versa. Therefore, it is important to create a successful cross communication between commissioners and board members. Firstly, it will be the responsibility of the board member functioning as Treasurer/Internal Affairs to inform about operations and plans ongoing in every committee. Secondly, commissioners are asked to meet with their corresponding board member (i.e. Social Events, Marketing) to discuss future plans ensuring a smooth and collaborative cooperation. On top of this, it is recommended to organize a social event in the beginning of the year for every board member and every commissioner in order to get to know each other better and know who will be in charge of which position. This can also improve a direct communication between commissioners. Chosen commissioners must be named to every SR member once elected. Generally, the SR board has to guarantee a constant information flow to members in order to hold a transparent level of communication in which everyone is welcomed to share ideas.

3.2 Further initiativesBesides the professional actions taken to attain our strategy end goal, the organization also exploits some extra initiatives that are linked to educational quality and reducing the scale barrier between student and faculty. The two initiatives mentioned here are only proposals.A first initiative is organizing social drinks for both faculty personnel and students. This is meant to break down the scale barrier between student and personnel.A second initiative is the Professor Awards ceremony. Elected by the students, these awards are given to the best professor of each of the 3 years, in BA and IBA bachelor courses as well as Pre-Master courses. Once expanding to the master courses, awards for Master Professors should be considered. Additionally, the best supporting staff department in the faculty is elected. This event is organized for multiple reasons. Besides exposure and networking, students are able to show a sign of appreciation to their education and more

specifically to the professors they have enjoyed the most. In this sense, the SR is promoting to enhance the relationship between professor and the student body.

A third initiative is the cooperation with RSM Today. RSM Today is best described as a daily news bulletin in the breaks of both BA and IBA lectures with news about RSM, Erasmus University in general and nationwide student issues. Furthermore, RSM Today provides a platform for internal as well as external student-related organizations to show students information about their specific activities. The cooperation will mean that SR members will get the opportunity to become a writer of RSM Today and deliver content for the news bulletins. In addition, the SR is allowed to advertise via RSM Today for free. This is an effective way to communicate information to the students and make students more aware of the SR.

4. Timeframe

In order to ensure a structural implementation and follow-up for strategy 2016 a timeframe is employed. Below this timeline is presented graphically in table 1 and elaborated on per phase.

2011-

2012

2012-

2013

2013-

2014

2014-

2015

2015-

2016

T1 T2

T3

T1 T2

T3

T1 T2

T3

T1 T2

T3

T1 T2

T3

Orientation &

formulation

Planning & implementati

on

Execution & measureme

nt

Evaluation & revision

Formulation new strategy

Table 1. Strategy Timeline

4.1 Orientation & formulation

During the academic year 2011-2012 the board is given the task to work on the formulation of the strategy 2016. Before the final formulation the board will first have to orientate what the content and goal of the strategy should be by reflecting opinions of our stakeholders. By interviewing Program Management, professors and students a strategy will be formulated that can satisfy all our stakeholders and thus ourselves.

In addition to formulating a strategy it is required to thoroughly describe how this should be implemented, to provide future boards the knowledge about which step is next in the implementation and how to execute their tasks. However flexibility in the organization is needed. Because of this the tasks needed to be performed are not described in too much detail, so that boards have room for their own ideas. Of course, boards are encouraged to initiate new activities to our portfolio, as long as they fit within our current line of business.

4.2 Planning & implementationAt the end of 2011-2012, the board is supposed to finish not only the strategy but also a timeframe that indicates what a board task is in completing the realization of our strategy’s goal.During the academic year 2012-2013, the board is given the task to fully implement all aspects of Strategy 2016. Also this year the collection of data will start that will be used to monitor performance. The tools that are used to assess the performance will be described in chapter 4.3 below.In the case that the process of planning and implementing the new strategy cannot be fully finished during the previously mentioned academic year, it is the following board’s responsibility to terminate this stage of the timeframe by the end of the 2nd trimester during the academic year 2013-2014.

4.3 Execution & measurementWith the beginning of the 2nd trimester in the academic year of 2012-2013, the board works on executing the strategy. The planning and execution procedure will simultaneously be performed by this board and the following one. The board of the academic year 2014-2015 will then only be focused on its execution and measurement.The board has the responsibility to ensure the tasks for Strategy 2016 are fulfilled to their full extend and that progress in performance is monitored. Performance is reported to the Program Management and Supervisory board. Key performance indicators are described below:

Board task listThe most important indicator is whether the SR-board and its individual member execute all tasks described in the SR Statutes articles 19-32. Proper execution of all these tasks is required to effectively run the SR.

RepresentationTo measure the core business it is important to make sure the representation is done in the right way. It is the task of the coordinators to check with the professors about the execution of the representatives. Due to the fact that professors are always in a rush, the coordinator should stop by his office for a short personal talk about the meeting. In this way the coordinator is guaranteed to receive feedback about the execution of the representatives and has the possibility to react adequately and immediately. Besides that it will give the professor the impression of the SR as a serious and professional organization. The assumptions are that this will enhance the feedback exchange.

In Appendix A several questions are identified which can be used in the personal talk. It is not necessary to ask the questions literally but after the talk the coordinator should be able to answer them in order to get a proper image about the execution.

Marketing & PRFor Marketing & PR several Key Performance Indicators are identified. In the academic year of 2011/2012, the board has focused mainly on creating more awareness for the SR. Therefore, a new corporate identity was introduced including: posters, flyers, banners, a new website, Facebook fan page, RSM today slides, sweaters for the representatives and an improved monthly newsletter for all the stakeholders of the SR. This together created a foundation for future marketing activities upon which one can build. All the expressions of the SR will have the same layout so it will be easy to recognize on campus and stand out from the other organizations within the RSM.

Creating more brand awareness is important, but the most important goal for the coming years is ensuring that all students are willing to leave their feedback with the SR. This is especially the case with BA students; most of them are less involved in the courses compared to IBA students making them less willing to give feedback. Therefore, it is recommended to focus marketing activities more on BA students to make sure that the feedback process will catch up with IBA. Thus, SR will achieve by providing all are promoting materials (flyers, brochures, posters, etc.) bilingual, so it will more appeal to Dutch students who are not as used to the English language as international students.

Next, SR will show students that its actions are meaningful for them and that the organization represents their ‘voice’. Most students are not aware of the fact that the SR is in the position to negotiate with the university to stand up for the interests of the student body. By doing this, the organizations expect that students are more willing to leave their feedback with us and approach us when they have complaints about study related issues.

In addition, the SR will also continue the event ‘Lunch with your favorite professor’ and expand with even more events to lower the barriers between professors and students. By organizing this kind of events, students will be involved more and at the same time it improves the awareness of SR.

4.4 Evaluation, revision & formulation new StrategyDuring the year 2015-2016 the SR-board is responsible for evaluating and revising the Strategy 2016. They will have to determine if the goals set in this Strategy Statement are achieved and indentify areas that still need improvement. Then they will formulate a new Strategy Statement that drives the SR even more forward.

5. Limitations & future strategyThe scope of this strategy sets the arena for SR actions. The SR is active and known at the Rotterdam School of Management. As elaborated in this Strategy it is the most logical next step to expand to Master programs. Starting to represent Master programs it is essential to investigate the programs where is most need for representing and if there is any need for it at all. Master programs differ from the Bachelor program which makes it difficult to formulate a succeeding strategy. It is important to find a balance and explanation why some programs will be represented and others are not. If it all works out well, for a future strategy it could be

an option for boards to formulate a strategy including all Master courses structurally in our representation. The Strategy 2016 will be the first step to this achievement.

Furthermore, SR is active at RSM Erasmus University. Besides the plans to expand the business of the SR to other faculties, elaborated in this Strategy, one could see if any comparable associations exist at different universities. If not, a suggestion might be to introduce our association to faculties from other universities and see if there are any ambitious students who like to adopt the idea. The SR could support this and/or possible cooperate to improve our core business. With this strategy plan and our professional ambition which SR has adopted since the merger in the summer of 2008, the board is confident one day this strategy is implemented.

6. Final wordThis strategy statement is intended to inform the reader about the Strategy 2016 and its implementation. When writing these plans and implementations the SR-regulations were taken into consideration. These can be inspected at our office.If one would like any clarification or further explanation they can contact the board:Student RepresentationOffice:          T5-54Tel:              010-4082209E-mail:         info@rsmsr.nlWebsite:       www.rsmsr.nl

Appendix A: Indicators for representation measurement

The questions stated below are not meant to be used literally. They are indicators for the measurement of the representatives. The coordinator should be able to answer them about the representatives to create a proper image about the execution. The questions are developed to make sure the measurement of each representative has the same value.

1. Did the representatives introduce themselves to you during one of the first lectures?2. Did the representatives conduct a midterm meeting with you?3. Did the representatives conduct an end term meeting with you?4. Did the representatives send you the final report of their findings?5. How do you feel about the meetings with the representatives? 6. How would you rate the quality of the way in which the representatives communicated

with you (content of the emails, sporadic meeting in the halls, politeness, etc)?7. Do you consider  the received feedback as useful?8. Did the representatives come up with possible compromises/solutions for ongoing

issues?9. Are you satisfied with the quality of the written reports of the meetings?10.What is your overall impression of the Student Representation?

In general the conclusion of the answers should be positive, satisfied and constructive. If there are any signs about dissatisfaction, it is the task of the coordinator to estimate the situation and the need for action.