Independent journalism about VU Amsterdam | Since 1953
8 February 2025
Magazine
Nederlands

Participation

Campus & Culture 1 November 2024

VU wants to make difficult choices in tandem with staff council

VU Amsterdam will cut its budget significantly in 2025, but what exactly will be affected remains unknown. That there will be layoffs and that the quality of education will suffer, seems virtually guaranteed.
Campus & Culture 5 July 2024

How SRVU lost board members and votes this year

It lost half its votes in the university student council elections, waved goodbye to most of its board members and processed a lot of criticism from its members. While SRVU was consistently the largest party, it is now facing hard…
Campus & Culture 13 May 2024

‘Lefty hobbies’ divide consultative meeting

Emotions ran so high at a recent meeting of the Executive Board with the student and staff councils that it had to be suspended. ‘Not everyone has the patience for consultative procedures.’
Campus & Culture 25 April 2024

ChangeVU and VSP win Student Council elections

New parties ChangeVU and VSP have won the Student Council elections, with the traditionally dominant SRVU losing heavily. But there is disquiet over the campaign conducted by the right-wing VSP.
Campus & Culture 12 October 2023

‘For some people it’s very important what is in your passport’

VU has started the academic year with a brand-new works council, including three young international employees. Who are they and what do they hope to achieve as members? 
Campus & Culture 5 October 2023

‘ChatGPT is like heroin’

The University Student Council wants VU to be more accessible, with controlled use of ChatGPT and bins for waste separation. Mental health, blended learning, artificial intelligence, sustainability, accessibility, career guidance and the lottery system to select students for popular studies…
Campus & Culture 26 April 2023

‘For 10 minutes, I thought I was in the council’

Due to an error made by the election committee, Berfin Baran mistakenly thought she was elected to the university student council. “We’re all humans, everyone makes mistakes.” How did you react when you heard you weren’t elected after all? “It…
Campus & Culture 1 February 2023

Too few candidates for works council elections

There are hardly any new candidates for the works council elections in March. A problem, says chairman Henk Olijhoek, because the participation council needs fresh blood.
Campus & Culture 16 November 2022

‘PhD candidates are a very vulnerable group’

PhD candidates at VU Amsterdam are now represented by an officially recognized PhD council. ‘We are kind of a lobby club that makes PhD related issues visible.’
Campus & Culture 28 April 2022

Political parties want equal compensation for participation bodies across the country

Why does a student on the participation council get more remuneration at one institution than at another? National guidelines are needed to change this, in the view of GroenLinks and the PvdA.  Via the participation councils of higher education institutions,…