Professors complain about excessive doctor notes during exams

Way too many students are postponing their final exams for one day by acquiring doctor’s certificates, according to professor of fiscal justice Michel Maus of the Free University of Brussels (VUB). In an interview with Het Niewsblad, he denounced the practice, calling it “unacceptable and dishonest”.

This exam period, Maus had about 20 students who postponed their exams because they provided a doctor’s note for one day, he said. “It strikes me that stomach infections, migraines and food poisonings are widespread during each exam period.” He concluded that students who are unprepared simply turn up at their doctor’s office claiming they are sick to get a note. “This endangers the equal treatment of students,” he stated.

Ghent University rector Anne De Paepe said that students shoot themselves in the foot with this practice. “Youngsters go to university not only to acquire knowledge but to develop discipline and to learn to take responsibility,” she said. “By postponing their exams, they evade problems.”

The Belgian Association of Doctors’ Syndicates doesn’t deny the problem but feels this behaviour is “exceptional”. According to the organisation, it is not uncommon for students to fall sick during the exam period. And “with this warm weather, when food stands outside for too long, there are more food poisonings,” it said. “May and June are also the months when glandular fever occurs the most.”