Evalution of the EU policy minor

For the European Union minor our objective was to study the origin, structure and the future of the European Union. We looked at where the Union derived from, how it became what it is at the current state. We studied the different institution of the European Union, such as the European Parliament, European Court of Justices and European commission etc. Furthermore we handled the different policies in which the EU bases its daily decisions on, and looked at the ambitions and future plans of the EU.

The minor in short was informative; I learned a lot more of the EU than before I participated in this minor. Before I started in the minor, I actually had a vague idea of what the EU actually is, why we had a single currency, and how the EU has become what it is at the moment. Mr. Frencken, Mr. Vermeeren, Mr. Van Manen and Mrs. Den Engelsman did an awesome job in educating us in this minor. In the past we had shortly covered the European Union before in the economy class in high school. But after participating in this minor, I feel a lot has been cleared up, but it also led to new debates on mysteries and unclear aspects of the EU, which we were to tackle during class and it revealed that the EU still has some deficiencies, such as the “democratic deficit” which is argued by some, one of the major shortages, and the “one policy fits all” problem.

Like I have said before the minor was surely educational, but one thing I could not understand, at the time, was why they made this minor obligatory for those who wanted to participate in the double degree program. Surely there must have been a better reason for us to be obligated to participate in this minor besides that the fact that the academy wants us to remember where we came from? Lo and behold, I do not know whether this is intended or just luck, but it appears that what we have been taught actually comes in handy; here in Western Carolina University, North Carolina. At the moment I have been registered for the following class “International organizations” and other classes, on which on multiple occasion the European Union is mentioned both in class and in the textbooks. Having participated in this minor, actually gives us some advantage over others since we have prior knowledge.

Surely the minor did not proceed without mishaps, some of which are questionable. Such as the fact that the class schedule maker actually thinks that some of us are taking Dutch classes even though all participants of this minor are Dutch, resulting into classes being scheduled with free hours in between, while we have nothing to do at all. Or the fact that we did not have English classes until the second semester, resulting in a higher workload at the end of the semester, in which we had to combine it with the fact that we also had to take care of a lot of stuff prior heading out to our foreign destinations. But I have to say, I have yet to regret to have participated in this minor.