In comparison with the rest of your studies, graduation -for the Bachelor’s as well as the Master’s degree- is often a matter of ‘switching over’. During your courses the study material was presented to you and there were fixed examination dates and structured tutorials where you were taken to task if you had not completed assignments. During your graduation project, things are suddenly very different. You need to demarcate your research yourself, but also have more freedom - how tempting is it to stay in bed a little longer because there is no lecture to be attended at 8.45 a.m.? And you are expected to arrange appointments with your supervisor yourself, and to make sure you actually have stuff to discuss. In short, you have become the project leader of your own project.

Most graduation problems can be traced back to this newly acquired project leadership, as Lonneke Aalpol and Hedwich van Engelen indicate. As student advisers of the Education and Student Service Center (STU) they are specialized in ‘graduation deadlock’. Van Engelen: “It is quite a daunting task, being a project leader without a great deal of knowledge and experience. Still, it is wise to be aware that your graduation project is your own responsibility. Naturally a good supervisor will support the product and the process as part of the academic schooling. However, this also implies that you will eventually be trained to be an independent engineer, researcher or designer. Which means you yourself should provide clarity about what needs to be done. Plan carefully and work with a focused approach. Which experiments need to be carried out over the next few weeks, which articles do you want to read? What must be discussed with your supervisor and what should the feedback be about? Don’t expect your supervisor always to come up with solutions to these questions - in other words: be proactive.”

Anybody can get stalled during their graduation phase. It happens every day, no matter who you are, and often it is a combination of factors that can simply happen to you. And this may occur at any moment. There are students who, even before they have really begun, expect problems to occur in their project, or who in the final stage may have difficulty writing (in a scientifically adequate manner). Often this is accompanied by performance anxiety or perfectionism. Whatever is written, must be perfect right away and as a result the computer screen remains empty very long indeed. When everything is better than an empty screen, Aalpol recommends. “If anything, don’t wrestle with yourself too long, but make sure you talk to lots of other people about your ideas, questions or problems you may experience. Your discussion partners may be your professor -even if you are afraid of asking a silly question, so what?- as well as a fellow student or a friend. Just indicating you are stuck may help to bring about a positive acceleration. We often see that students keep going round in circles for too long: ‘If I clock eighty hours this week, or finally make that appointment with my supervisor, things will work out alright. The clock is ticking, though, and you are kidding yourself, which only slows down what little progress there may be. And the longer you get bogged down in negative thoughts, the harder it is to find a way out again.”

“Seeing that others are coping with the same problems is often quite a relief”

So be sure to alert someone about your graduation problems at an early stage. It can never harm to drop in at your supervisor, student adviser or STU. Usually, making an appointment with STU is a bit of a threshold for students, the student advisers have noticed. Aalpol: “Students tend to think that they really need to be at their wits’ end before turning to STU for help, and that this will entail a whole procedure to be followed. Mostly the contrary is true. All the experience we have gathered shows that a single discussion with several confrontational questions and tips is often enough to give students that little bit of support that enables them to carry on. For prolonged coaching we have the Graduation Group. This is a small group in which graduating students meet on a weekly basis in order to set concrete goals and where there is a buddy system. Students phone each other in the interim period by way of incentive and so as to exchange tips. Not with the idea of checking up on each other, but in order to help, to show solidarity. Seeing that others are coping with the same problems is often quite a relief already.”

Both during the individual talks and in the Graduation Group the attunement of expectations is an important item for consideration, says Aalpol. “In many cases you may be thinking of Mount Everest without any idea how to get to the top. Our main job is to clarify that you don’t need to be at the top straight away, you can also get there step by step. We first convert the slope into small hills, by taking away the pressure of the end result and setting realistic goals that are challenging at once. After all, the hill should be high enough; without a proper effort it is not interesting enough to begin the journey. You need to teach yourself how to divide a big task into small, concrete steps. When you have completed such a small step, you have scored a modest success: you’re a bit closer to your final goal again. And you don’t need to climb that mountain on your own. A project leader also makes sure that the right people are called in to make progress, so you can do that as well. And in the end you will be waving down at everybody from the top of Mount Everest.”

At the request of the interviewees they are only referred to by their first names.