Quality or Quantity?

A few weeks ago I attended the Masters Avond, an event for prospective students, to give information about the MSc in Sustainable Development. Along with some of my classmates, I answered questions about the specialization tracks offered and the courses in general. Although the programme is relatively new, every year it becomes more popular and a larger number of students apply for a place. The contents of the programme is also growing and next September a new track - Development and Sustainable Livelihoods - will be offered along with the four that already exist – Energy and Resources; Land Use, Environment and Biodiversity; Environmental Policy and Management; and International and European Environmental Law.
It is definitely impressive to see that every day more people are conscious of the risks of environmental degradation and hope to follow this programme to find ideas to address the challenge of sustainability and, ultimately, change the world a little bit. The growing interest on the programme can also be regarded as a positive evaluation to the university and its research activities. However, the downside to this is that if groups are larger then the richness of discussion with professors, guest lectures and fellow students is lost. Even now, I think that some of the groups are too big, that is, 60 to 70 people. With such large groups, discussion is sometimes impossible, and projects have to be necessarily in teams because otherwise it would be difficult for teachers to grade so many assignments, exams and presentations. The Faculty of Geosciences and the University should not favour quantity over quality.