All bachelor’s and master’s theses disappear into the archives at the Duisenberg building. Some are stored in the offices of supervisors, others in the archive. Jenny Hill, secretary of global economics, delivered unsettling news last week: her archive is full, and not even one bachelor thesis can be squeezed in.

‘We have stored the bachelor’s theses for years in that archive’, says Hill. ‘I have never needed one of them, but we were once told that we had to store them due to accreditation.’ However, there is no longer any space left for new theses. ‘Additionally, we have no idea how long we have to store them’, says Hill. ‘One year, three years, five years? Nobody knows.’

‘Unnecessary’

But Albert Boonstra, vice dean of the faculty, does know: the theses do not have to be physically stored at all. ‘The theses have been stored online for years, thus a paper version in the archive is unnecessary.’

Hill admits that the theses have been available online since 2012, but because she never received official guidelines from the faculty, she obediently stored the documents. The number of theses currently in the archive is unknown to Hill. After Boonstra replied, FEB’s problem had been solved. ‘From now on, we will throw the theses away if the supervisor does not want to keep them’, says Hill.