20 years pioneering in Liberal Arts and Sciences ANNUAL REVIEW 2018 INTRODUCTION
Twenty years is a long time for distinctive education – not least a Dutch Liberal Arts and Science by the Accreditation panel that College to have existed. In marking visited us in the wake of our twenty- the two-decade milestone of year anniversary – we possess the University College in September internal drive to strive for continual 2018, we took time to reflect on improvement. The allocation of all that has changed. In 1998, liberal scholarship time to all academic education was – literally – a foreign staff – which allows them time to concept in the Netherlands. Now pursue their own research passions ‘LAS’ is one of the largest study – is one important way to strengthen programmes in the Netherlands, our exceptional teaching for the both inside and outside the many future. Opening new opportunities university colleges that have to follow interdisciplinary courses followed in the wake of University and develop community engagement College Utrecht. is another, alongside the priority to further enhance a challenging From the outset, our adventurous but supportive climate where our students and teachers were real students can flourish. trailblazers; they had to make up the playbook as they went along. We acknowledge the need to Nowadays their script has been continue offering liberal learning. taken over and modified by others. It matters to the future of our This changing context means that prospective students, but it is also in University College Utrecht itself is the interests of society. May we find challenged to continually innovate ways to be ever truer to our mission. as a vibrant and international learning community. Though James Kennedy we were warmly praised for our Dean Accreditation New Students In September we were accredited We welcomed 260 new students, by the Accreditation Organization 28 in the Spring and 232 in the of the Netherlands and Flanders Fall semester. They were selected (NVAO). The accreditation, which out of 1,007 applicants in total. takes place every six years, Following the trend in previous resulted in a positive evaluation years, female students (180) of our academic curriculum. The outnumbered male (80). Nearly commission especially valued our half of the new students were educational approach, in which input Dutch. 34% of the newcomers were from students plays a substantial European and 18% non-European. role in the curriculum building. Educational Development For the sixth consecutive year, Faithful to our Liberal Arts and we were awarded the Top Sciences educational model, our Rated Programme quality seal courses covered a broad range 2019 by the Keuzegids, a Dutch of subjects in Humanities, Social study choice guide. We score Sciences and Sciences, amounting particularly well on the quality of the to a total of 124 in Spring and study programme and the lecturers, 126 in Fall. On a scale from 1 to 5, and are valued by experts. students gave the overall quality of the courses 4 in average.
666 Top 5 Degree Students non-Dutch Nationalities (February 2019)
German 280 Dutch Double nationality British (incl. Dutch)
1 0 Italian
French
20 American 10 Non-European 218 Non-Dutch European New Courses and Tracks Africa, Bridging Brugge Heritage We introduced nine new courses: Visit, Iconography: XYZ of the Bible, Chinese Language and Culture IV, Development of Research Clinics, Politics and Religion in the Modern Global Mental Health Jamaica, World, Visual Culture Studies, Humor Philosophy Connections and Arts, and the Classical Tradition, The and Sciences of Food. Digital Citizen, Global Health and the SDGs, Human Trafficking, Global Senior Teaching Fellow Project Religions: Ideas and Practices, and Director of Education Sabine Uijl Implementing Sustainability. Next received the Comenius Senior to the existing Double Degree in Teaching Fellowship of The Royal Law, we started a new Double Netherlands Academy of Arts Degree programme in Physics and Sciences (KNAW) for the in cooperation with the Utrecht two-year project “Student agency University Department of Physics. at UCU, redesign of a personalised curriculum”. The project will help Innovative Projects students more effectively set their The Seneca programme funds goals, make curriculum choices projects that innovate our and reflect on their study by using curriculum. In 2018, the following digital storytelling. projects were funded: One Book One Campus, (Re)Conceptualizing
Spending (x 1,000) Revenues (x 1,000)
a a a a 8 8 8 1 8 1
Academic and AcademicAcademic and and UUUU education education 1 8 1 8 support staff supportsupport staff staff 2 8 2 8 UUUU academic academic housing housing 1 0 1 0 Academic housing AcademicAcademic housing housing 1 2 1 2 Non-EEANon-EEA tuition tuition fees fees 11 11 Material costs MaterialMaterial costs costs 1 2 2 1 2 2 OtherOther revenues revenues Student Exchanges UCU Fund Becomes University College Utrecht has a ‘Named Fund’ 52 partner institutions for student The UCU Fund, comprising all our exchange, in 24 different countries, fundraising activities, including those on 5 different continents. New for the UCU Scholarships and the partner universities include the Rosemary Orr Scholarship, became Okayama University in Japan. In a Named Fund under the umbrella 2018, two new destination countries of the Utrecht University Fund. were added: Estonia and Jamaica. This gives donors the advantage In total, we received 112 incoming of donating to an organisation that exchange students, while 88 of our has the ANBI status, meaning the students went abroad on exchange. gift is fully or partially deductible from their taxable incomes. Scholarships 73 students received a scholarship, 19 of them from EEA countries and 54 from outside the EEA area. Most scholarships cover only a part of the study fee, with an average of € 9,043. In total, the scholarships amounted to € 488,300.
Scholarship Revenues
Tuition Utrecht Excellence Scholarship Aurelius fees Scholarships donations Fund 0 100 000 2 1 000
a 88 00 Newly Joined and Departed Elisa Veini started as Staff Members Communications and Marketing Meindert Fennema, emeritus Advisor. Wendy Holwerda, Paddy Professor in Political Theory Haripersaud and Hanna Szabo (University of Amsterdam) was joined the Admissions Office. nominated as a temporary fellow. Kim Zunderdorp replaced Elzelien van Buuren as Head of the Registrar Lonia Jakubowska, Fellow in and Admissions Offices. Cultural Anthropology, retired after 18 years at University College Utrecht. She was especially praised by students as an outstanding teacher, and perceived by colleagues as a key pillar of the Social Sciences Department.
Staff(FTE’s)
a FTE
UCU appointed academic staff 8. of which with tutorial tasks .2 UU or externally appointed staff 1 .1 Support staff 10.2 Academic Staff Awards UCU Teacher of the year was and Recognition Robert Renes. Diana Odier-Contreiras Garduño, Lecturer in Human Rights Law, Chiara Robbiano was nominated defended her PhD thesis at for the UU Outstanding Teacher Utrecht University, titled Collective award, and Patrick Wijchers, Lecturer Reparations. Tensions and Dilemmas in Biology, for the UU Teacher Talent Between Collective Reparations and the award. Individual Right to Receive Reparations. Alumni Achievements Head of Humanities Department Josien Botje, alumna of 2010 Kiene Brillenburg Wurth was guest and teacher of Arabic and Spanish, editor of a special issue of the won the OnderwijsToptalent in journal Comparative Literature, the Higher Education Award. oldest American journal in the field of literary studies: The Material Turn Cato Bui, alumna of 2016, won in Comparative Literature. She was the Rough Diamonds League of also co-editor of the publication the Philips Innovation Award 2018 Book Presence in a Digital Age. with her start-up Circal Technologies.
The Senior Teaching Qualification Ties Dams, alumnus of 2012, (SKO) was awarded to Jocelyn published a book about Xi Jinping, Ballantyne, Lecturer in Linguistics, De nieuwe Keizer (Prometheus and to Chiara Robbiano, Lecturer publishing). in Philosophy. Iris Otto, alumna of 2009, won The Basic Teaching Qualification the annual PhD student competition (BKO) was awarded to Robert Renes, Breaking Science of Utrecht Lecturer in Psychology, and University. to Brian Dermody, Lecturer in Earth and Environment. 4th Lustrum UCU20 Exhibition In September, University College Twenty years of University College Utrecht celebrated its twentieth Utrecht history was beautifully anniversary with a week of activities, displayed in an exhibition curated ranging from the screening of by Mary Bouquet, Fellow in Heritage a documentary about our history Studies. The exhibition, designed by by alumna Abigail Pride and a architect Henk de Haan, highlighted fundraising dinner, to a full-day personal stories and belongings festival that concluded the of our students and staff members. celebrations. The week started Also included were paintings by with our participation in the national Fahed Ibrahim, as well as a film Open Monuments day together with about his background as a refugee our neighbouring Kromhoutkazerne. student and artist. The day attracted 2,000 visitors to the campus and was well covered by local media. Interdisciplinarity Symposium One Book One Campus Also part of the Lustrum For the second time, Agnes celebrations, we organised Andeweg, Lecturer in Literature, an international symposium organised the One Book One about interdisciplinary learning. Campus project. All students The panellists were Rosi Braidotti and staff members received their (Utrecht University, Humanities), personal copy of Maxim Februari’s Alfredo Brillembourg, (Zurich, novel The Book Club, which they Architecture), Wendy Carlin read and discussed from multiple (University College London, perspectives. The project culminated Economics), Naomi Ellemers in a public event with the author on (Utrecht University, Psychology) campus during the Lustrum week. and Martijn Snoep (Chairman of Netherlands Authority of Consumers & Markets, Lawyer). Alumni Homecoming Voltaire Quiet Area In October, University College Utrecht The study area on the first floor welcomed fifty alumni back to the of the Voltaire building was fully campus for our second Homecoming renewed and put into use in party. This was a special day full of December. The new quiet study shared memories and catching up area offers students improved with former classmates. work spaces, catering for various individual styles of studying and Food for Thought need for concentration: large tables, In December we enjoyed a preview smaller sections and a reading area. of the documentary series Food for Thought about world philosophies, in which five of our students participated. An initiative of Chiara Robbiano and Viewpoint Productions, the series will be shown on Dutch television in 2019. Julian Merkle, graduated in December 2018 “We study at University College to learn what is valuable in life and who we want to become.”
227 students graduated 191 students graduated in June, 123 received the title Bachelor of Arts and 68 the title Bachelor of Science. In December, we congratulated 36 graduating students: 21 in Bachelor of Arts and 15 in Bachelor of Science. LEARN FOR LIFE
University College Utrecht provides English-language Liberal Arts and Sciences undergraduate education. Founded in 1998 as the first university college in the Netherlands, we are part of Utrecht University. Our campus is home to 750 students with 70 different nationalities. We encourage our students to explore and design their individual curriculum cross-cutting Science, Social Sciences and Humanities, and to engage in extra- curricular activities. At University College Utrecht, students learn for life.
UU.NL/UCU March 2019. Text: University College Utrecht. Design: Piraña grafisch ontwerp, Utrecht. Photography: Loes van Gameren, Maud Fernhout, Viewpoint Productions, FocusCo and University College Utrecht.