A glimpse into the lives of 88 students from the 1950s

As a historian, you sometimes need luck. A colleague at the Science Park emailed me that she had saved a folder with completed questionnaires from 88 students from 1956 and 1957 from a paper dumpster. Double-sided completed forms from Mathematics and Physics students who had left secondary school less than a year before. Complete with attached passport photo and a load of questions we are not allowed to ask anymore and would not want to these days. That is how it often goes with archived material, it is not seldom retained by chance.

The Catholic side of Mathematics and Physics

It is fascinating reading material. You learn which social association was popular (Veritas) and why some students did not join any association (“principal nihilist” or “it is too rowdy there”). What stands out is that 60 percent were members of associations and that another 10 percent considered joining later after all. 

Less than a third of the students identified as non religious or did not answer that question. But over half of the students came from Brabant, Limburg or the eastern Netherlands and 45 percent of the students indicated to be Roman Catholics. That also explains the love for the Catholic Veritas. Could Mathematics and Physics secretly be a Catholic degree programme?

From finances to stamp collections

Information about the students' finances was extensively inquired about as well. A little more than half of the respondents studied with scholarships, which were sometimes supplemented by a corporate fund (Philips) or a provincial scholarship. 

Some of them reported: “father pays”. One student stated that “mother pays”. An advance of around two thousand guilders was said to be “quite enough to make it”, because the “rooms were not expensive”. But someone on a scholarship of 750 guilders had to deliver newspapers in order to make ends meet.

The students are also asked how often they go home. Most of them once every three to four weeks, except for a female student from Goeree-Overflakkee. She only went home during vacation periods, but that was because she had to travel by train, bus, regional tram and boat. Typical for the stereotypical allocation of tasks at that time was that she had come into some delay in completing the degree programme, because she could not work for two months: she had “taken care of the family at home”. 

They had hobbies too. These were in a way befitting of their respective choices in degree programmes, such as engineering, chess and music. One musical student has become very well-known later with a website which provided extensive information on all Bach cantatas. But sports were held in high regard too. Two students collected stamps. Are there still any first-year students who collect stamps?

Questionnaires fit with the after-war era

But why was all this data requested in the first place? Why did the Department of Mathematics and Physics want to know what the “Societal position of the family” was? And what the “interpersonal relationship” among brothers and sisters was? Judging by the different handwritings on the same form, it looks like there was a follow-up interview based on the form, but I have not yet found any concrete background information on these questionnaires. They do fit into a very specific development in the years after the Second World War. 

After the war, universities came to realise more and more that students were left to their own devices too often. Whether or not they did their exams or attended classes was all their own responsibility. An ill student had no place to go at the university. No one actually looked after them. That is why in 1951, the Utrecht-based university appointed someone who was actually everything at once: social worker, Study Advisor, Student Counsellor and Confidential Adviser. 

An ill student had no place to go at the university. No one looked after them.

An attempt to prevent students from dropping out

At that very same time, discussions on the selection of students were also held, often intended to prevent students from dropping out. Within these developments, the first-year Mathematics and Physics students' forms are a perfect fit. A part of the questions on the backside of the form also point in that direction. These are questions such as: “Is the degree programme in line with your expectations of it?” Along with whether or not you had a backlog in studies, and what in the degree programme was easy and what was difficult. 

That was especially also because this degree programme started broadly with Mathematics, Physics and Astronomy subjects. After the first year, a first specialisation in a system of Major subjects and Minor subjects had to be chosen and you can guess that the completed forms played a role in that.

Not everyone was a fan of student selection

But there was also criticism of the phenomenon of ‘student selection’. The Utrecht-based Professor of Psycho Technique David van Lennep was the founder of the professions test in the Netherlands. He was not much in favour of it. 

For instance, he wrote in 1961: “Every problem student represents a variant which essentially always comes down to the same problem, which is that they cannot shape their own lives. (…) They get entangled in erotic adventures which result in nothing, or completely lose themselves in the unrealities of daydreams.”

Teachers of the future

At the end of the form, the perspective of professions was asked about as well. A captivating question because especially from Utrecht, Professor Hans Freudenthal was working on the reforming of mathematics education on the secondary schools. It would make him both famous and infamous. 

It is therefore also interesting to see that almost forty percent of the first-year students saw themselves as future teachers. And that was during a period in which the teaching profession was not always held in equally high regard. As it is written in one of the forms: “Student has heard many bad things about teaching profession, but actually believes it is a beautiful profession.” And that is how it is!