But does this really feel like a vacation? Do you truly have peace of mind when the shadow of upcoming exams (and for many, resits as well) hangs over the holidays? For me, often not. This year too, my laptop came with me on vacation. Not always out of necessity, but out of habit. That nagging feeling that you should be doing something seems to be part of the TU/e Christmas package.

Could this be done differently? Absolutely. Take Tilburg University, for example. There, they start a week earlier and shorten the first semester slightly, so that Q2 exams are completed before the Christmas break. The three weeks after the holidays are reserved exclusively for resits. Pass everything in one go? Then you get five weeks off. Need to resit? You’re given all the time in the world to focus on that, while the material is still fresh in your mind. By applying the same trick in the spring, they also manage to end the academic year three weeks earlier.

If you do the math for a nominal bachelor’s and master’s program, it adds up to twenty extra weeks off. That’s half an academic year you could spend traveling, working a part-time job, or simply enjoying hobbies. These are things that play a key role in mental health and personal development, yet in our system you get just eight weeks in the summer to do them. And for those who think this comes at the expense of quality: Tilburg consistently ranks among the European top in fields such as economics and econometrics.

The current TU/e system, by contrast, is not rewarding and certainly not forgiving. Exams that keep piling up if you have to resit something, no real breaks between quarters, exams scheduled on Saturdays, and the intrusion into your summer rest in August when resits take place—it may be operationally efficient from a managerial perspective, but it is anything but student-centered.

That’s why I couldn’t help but laugh bitterly at the ‘Wellbeing Wednesday’ post on the TU/e Instagram account on December 24. The theme: productivity guilt. A sympathetic initiative aimed at teaching students how to deal with the guilt of not working. A message I fully support—but then don’t pair it with deadlines, mountains of catch-up and resit work, and the need to choose courses at the same time.

At a time when pressure on students continues to rise, I hope to see more from TU/e than just Instagram posts and emails about mental well-being.

Lars ten Hacken is a master’s student in Applied Physics at TU/e. The views expressed in this column are his own.

This article was translated using AI-assisted tools and reviewed by an editor.