Dear Mr. Markkula, 

I hope you are doing well. 

I, Flemming Salchow, am writing to you as the student’s representative for the economics program with an important matter. I’ve heard time and time and time again that many of my classmates, myself included, are concerned that the Econometrics 2 exam, unlike the Econometrics 1 exam, will be administered entirely in English. I think it worked out great last time when there was an online survey asking whether students wanted the exam in German or English. That’s how it was handled. From what my students and I have heard, it went really well last time. I know that, as an English speaker, you’ve now taken over Professor Görges’ lecture from last year. Nevertheless, I and many of my fellow students believe it makes a lot of sense for the exam to also be available in German. We are aware that we are also allowed to answer in German, but that is generally not where the difficulty lies. The difficulty in econometrics lies much more in being able to quickly understand the complexity of the problem. The most recent exam results for Econometrics 1 showed that even with the German version, many students already struggled extremely. If the added challenge of a foreign language is now thrown into the mix, it will certainly result in an exam with a dismal grade average. 

And that wouldn't reflect how well the students actually understood econometrics. It would reflect how well they speak English. The students and I believe that this was not the purpose of this course. Our grades should not be determined by how well we understand English as a foreign language. Until now, I and the other class representatives from the economics program have rarely, if ever, contacted professors directly, since there have been no issues that have concerned the vast majority of us. Now, however, that is the case. Therefore, my fellow students and I would like to appeal to you with an urgent request that you make it possible for the exam to also be administered in German for those who feel more comfortable with the German language. Last time, a good 80 to 90 percent chose the German version. We can probably expect a similar percentage this time as well. We hope you will be understanding our request, as it is truly important. The econometrics exams are among the most important in our entire bachelor’s program in terms of content. Please help us ensure that this exam does not turn into a disaster. We have made an effort to contact you well in advance so that you would have sufficient time to accommodate our urgent request. Thank you very much in advance. My fellow students and I would greatly appreciate an initial response. 

Kind regards, 

Flemming Salchow