Independent journalism about VU Amsterdam | Since 1953
7 September 2026
Magazine
Nederlands

Emma Sprangers

3 September 2026

How to get out of your bubble

When starting out at VU, it’s tempting to lock yourself in a comfy social circle built around things like your degree or nationality. Here is how to make friends beyond it.
1 September 2026

Two counsellors for 3,000 employees

For half a day each week, Professor of Business Analytics Sandjai Bhulai puts mathematics aside and serves as a central staff confidential counsellor.
13 August 2026

Netherlands brings 29 leading scientists here from the United States with special Tulip Fund

Thirty-four researchers from abroad are coming to the Netherlands to continue their academic work here. Of these, 29 were working in the United States. They are the first grants awarded from the new Tulip Fund.
13 August 2026

Guideline: academic freedom must sometimes give way to knowledge security

Measures around knowledge security are intended to protect core values such as openness and academic freedom, a new guideline states. But the measures sometimes work against those same core values, it adds.
13 August 2026

Agreements on international students now officially signed

The universities of applied sciences, research universities and education minister Letschert today put their signatures to the administrative agreements on the inflow of international students. This continues the previously agreed policy of ‘self-regulation’.
6 July 2026

Among floating ice islands

Who else is lucky enough to spend two months camping at the end of the world for their Master’s degree? For the second time, Gaspar Meijas Kromhout is participating in a Chilean Antarctic expedition. On catching penguins and bird flu…
6 July 2026

A fragile peace, full of contradictions

Thirty years after its war, criminology students visited Bosnia and found a peace that denies as much as it remembers.
2 July 2026

Number of highly skilled migrants coming to Netherlands has halved since 2022

The number of highly skilled migrants from outside the EU has halved since 2022, according to Statistics Netherlands. Universities of the Netherlands (UNL) calls the trend worrying: “Highly skilled migrants are essential for research and innovation in this country.”
18 June 2026

Number of international students falls for the first time

According to the internationalisation organisation Nuffic, the number of international students in the Netherlands has fallen slightly for the first time in twenty years. This is mainly due to students from Germany and China staying away.
11 June 2026

More and more US researchers want to go to Europe

The number of US academics applying for a European research grant has more than doubled in the past year. For the ‘advanced grants’ aimed at leading academics, the number of applications from the US has increased fivefold.
Emma Sprangers
Emma Sprangers editor
Get in contact with Emma Sprangers