Dimensie

In our nowadays society, we are all focused on high grades and graduating within the expected time, which is mostly as minimum as possible. But do we also focus on personal development and actually learning, or are we only focusing on graduating? However, if you are struggling with this, maybe taking more time can be beneficial for you!

There are several reasons why you can have a study delay, which are of course all valid reasons. There are uncontrollable factors that can occur while studying. For example, illness, external factors like COVID-19 and personal circumstances like feeling depressed or having family issues. It is important to know that this is not your fault and that it can happen to everyone, even to the best of us. It can happen that you feel like a failure, but remember that nobody thinks you are! 

Second of all, there are controllable factors that can occur while studying. These factors are, mostly, focused on personal development. For example, working or a board year, where you are learning and improving yourself outside your studies. Another reason is that you want to rethink your decisions regarding your studies and future work field. During this type of study delay, you have more time to think about your choices. Whatever you decide, in the end you learned and improved yourself by thinking about your choices. 

There is also a stigma of redoing courses or not doing all courses throughout the academic year. This type of study delay, however, can also be focused on personal development. If you need to take it a little slower, if you want to learn course by course or if you just want more time to really understand everything, then just do it, it is completely fine to delay!

So if you have some study delay or if you are thinking about delaying your studies, do not worry and do not beat yourself up about it. Personal development is always a good reason for study delay, just ask your future boss, they will agree!