Mirjam van Praag had already decided to step down as President of the Executive Board in August of last year, so she had a year to work towards it, she says. When she went through her address book to see whom she should invite to her farewell, she realised how many “fantastic people” at and outside of VU Amsterdam she got to know thanks to her presidency. “It’s been a treat.” That’s one of the things she’ll miss “very much” once it’s over, “but I’m really looking forward to what I’m going to do after this and also to a slightly different work-life balance.”
Van Praag is stepping down before her second four-year term as President expires. “In my close circle two people passed away, which makes you think about mortality and that kind of thing”, she says on the subject. “But I had always said I’d do roughly half of my second term anyway. Now we have a lot of things moving along nicely and the start of the new academic year is a good moment. I wanted to take my decision with a year to go so there was enough time to find a replacement. I also knew that I’d be able to give it my all, which this position requires, and muster enough enthusiasm to do it for one more year.”
A solemn duty
She had her share of bad days, but looks back at a wonderful time, she says. “I find it a privilege and a responsibility, a solemn duty. It was tougher than I thought, but I also coped with it better than I thought. VU Amsterdam is a large, complex organisation with a lot of stakeholders. Fortunately, all of them get their say, but it does cost a lot of time, including the politics we have to contend with. There was also a backlog when it came to VU Amsterdam’s network and alumni relations, the role we take in the Amsterdam ecosystem, that was hard work too. And while you’re busy shaping and implementing your strategy all kinds of things happen that you have to respond to, because they’re bad or because VU Amsterdam’s reputation is at stake. You’re always on, there’s so much to do. And you’re constantly switching from one thing to the next.”
Her toughest time was in 2021, when Rector Vinod Subramaniam left for the Executive Board presidency at the University of Twente. Van Praag temporarily took over his position, alongside her own presidency. COVID was in full swing and the crisis involving the new ICT systems, known as MARS, was looming. “We only had two Executive Board members (Van Praag and board member Marcel Nollen, Ed.) and it was all very intense”, says Van Praag.
Entrepreneurship
Her focus will shift back to the research she was right in the middle of as a full professor of Entrepreneurship in Copenhagen, in the period leading up to her presidency. “I’m going to carry out research at VU Amsterdam into which specific qualities of entrepreneurs, such as a certain childlike open-mindedness and bravery, can be positive for managers and board members at organisations.”
‘You can’t fulfil a role in society from an ivory tower’
As the President of the Executive Board, she also promoted entrepreneurship within VU Amsterdam. “It’s one of our three priority areas: enterprising, sustainable and diverse. Between our three legal core duties − teaching, research and impact − impact was kind of lagging behind research and teaching. There used to be an idea about entrepreneurship that it meant you were distancing yourself from academia and set out to make money, with Porsches filling up our car parks and whatnot. By now it’s clear that entrepreneurship is a good way of bringing academia to society, which is extremely important in meeting all kinds of urgent challenges, such as the energy transition, the climate crisis and the lack of equal opportunity.”
Ivory tower
When Van Praag started at VU Amsterdam, she noticed that VU Amsterdam seemed to be doing its utmost to keep its impressive achievements under wraps. “Our window to the world was somewhat closed. We haven’t only made the connection to this outside world through entrepreneurship, but also by founding DURF (the Office for University Relations and Fundraising, Ed.), tightening our bounds with alumni, with strategic collaborations and strategic relation management. Internally we’ve also changed the atmosphere, by daring to shine a bit more, everything with the goal of fulfilling our role in society, which you can’t do from an ivory tower.”
She’s very proud of this, she says. She also thinks, without being able to prove it, that staff and students feel more connected to VU Amsterdam, while at other universities the connection to the faculty is often a bit more important.
Fossil fuel industry
One of the high points of her presidency in her opinion is the dialogue within the entirety of VU Amsterdam, students and staff, that preceded the decision to stop collaborating with the fossil fuel industry. “That was a decision with a huge impact, also because we were the first university that took such a decision. One of the other university administrators said they felt like their hand was forced, but within the umbrella organisation Universities of the Netherlands we had agreed that each university would decide independently”, says Van Praag. “I kept the other universities posted all the time and announced beforehand which decision we were going to make, inviting them to join the national dialogue we set up. This other administrator ended up frankly admitting I was right.”
‘Entrepreneurship is a good way of bringing academia to society’
While devising VU Amsterdam’s strategic agenda, Van Praag also involved the work floor and the students and now, while streamlining the organisation in the ‘VUture’ process, she’s doing so again. “You can’t keep organising a university that has changed as much as VU Amsterdam has like you did in 2013”, says Van Praag. “We sometimes joke around saying that everything is currently being held together with plasters and strings, and we are looking for an organisational model that can swiftly adapt to the changing circumstances.”
The low point for Van Praag came when VU Amsterdam had to close because of COVID. But VU Amsterdam being able to make immediate arrangements for students that for whatever reason couldn’t study from home and take online exams − that she’s content about.
Arguing with the Staff Council
It took a while for the Executive Board to be in sync with the work floor under Van Praag’s presidency. In 2019, she faced off with the Staff Council over the reorganisation of the theology faculty, and she wasn’t exactly thrilled when the Council even went to court over the issue, eventually losing the case [LINK]. This made things between the Staff Council and the Executive Board a bit tense for a while, but Van Praag says she never held anything against the Council. “That case cost a lot of time, but angry, me? It’s not my place as the Executive Board President to be angry. If anyone was angry, it was the Staff Council”, she says on the subject.
Although a job satisfaction survey showed last year that VU Amsterdam staff are generally happy, it also indicated that the university performed worse in some aspects of inappropriate conduct than the three other universities that took part in the survey. Van Praag remembers thinking Ad Valvas reported about it in a negative way. After we send her that item later, with a link to the investigation report, a spokesperson responds with a short statement by the Executive Board: “Each situation involving inappropriate conduct is one too many as far as we’re concerned. (…) We encourage everyone who’s experiencing inappropriate conduct to talk about it to a supervisor or the confidential counsellor.”
Democratic walk-in sessions
The relationship with the Staff Council is currently much improved. “We found each other again thanks to the COVID pandemic”, said Henk Olijhoek in an interview on the occasion of his farewell as chair of the Staff Council. “As we had never experienced anything like it before, we needed each other to find a way through that pandemic.”
When the Executive Board announced the streamlining of the organisation, a process that’s now called “VUture”, things threatened to escalate again for a moment. Because of the unpleasant memories a lot of employees still have of the largescale reorganisation involving forced layoffs ten years ago, Van Praag thinks. But the way the Executive Board is approaching the streamlining, democratic walk-in sessions and all, is garnering a lot of appreciation. Van Praag is widely praised.
The presidency has changed her, says Van Praag. “My sister says that I’ve become a better tactician and that, when there’s something going on, I’ve acquired a certain flexibility that allows me to take everyone’s interest into account while discussing the issue.”