Annual Report 2015 | University of Amsterdam 1
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annual report 2015 | university of amsterdam 1 Annual Report 2015 2 annual report 2015 | university of amsterdam annual report 2015 | university of amsterdam 1 Annual Report 2015 University of Amsterdam 2 annual report 2015 | university of amsterdam Publication details Published by University of Amsterdam May 2016 Composition Strategy & Information Department Annual report design April Design Photo series ‘Bachelor’s students holding the source of inspiration for their choice of study programme’: Lisa Helder and Niké Dolman. Front cover Philosophy student Lucie Galis was inspired by Simone de Beauvoir to think about important issues that she had never thought about before, something she discovered in the Philosophy programme. Back cover Cultural Studies student Christiaan de Wolf is interested in concerts - what happens on stage but also behind scenes. Photo of Simone de Beauvoir (page 89) Copyright: Sipa Press/Rex Features Timeline: Bram Belloni | Bob Bronshoff | Ton Dujardin Ursula Jemberg | Markus Knab | Monique Kooijmans Eduard Lampe | Jeroen Oerlemans | Jan Willem Steenmeijer The UvA has done its best to identify all potential copyright holders. If you believe your ownership rights have not been applied, please contact the Communications Office. Information University of Amsterdam Communications Office PO Box 19268 1000 GG Amsterdam +31 (0)20 525 2929 www.uva.nl No rights can be derived from the content of this Annual Report. © Universiteit van Amsterdam Disclaimer: Every effort has been made to provide an accurate translation of the text. However, the official text is the Dutch text: any differences in the translation are not binding and have no legal effect. annual report 2015 | university of amsterdam 3 Contents 5 Foreword by the Executive Board 7 Key data 9 Message from the Supervisory Board 14 Members of the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board 18 Faculty deans and directors of the organisational units 19 Details of the legal entity 20 Glossary of abbreviations 23 1. Teaching and research 23 1.1 The University of Amsterdam 31 1.2 Teaching 43 1.3 Research 57 1.4 Innovation and impact 69 2. Organisation and operational management 69 2.1 Talent policy 79 2.2 Financial policies 85 2.3 Infrastructure 91 3. Strategic themes 91 3.1 Internationalisation 93 3.2 Student experience 99 3.3 High impact and low imprint 104 3.4 The academic community 111 4. Administration 111 4.1 Administration and management 119 4.2 Remuneration data 121 5. Financial report by the Executive Board 121 5.1 The UvA’s financial position 127 5.2 Financial result 2015 135 5.3 Treasury 139 5.4 Continuity 143 5.5 Risks 149 6. Accountability for profile and performance agreements 149 6.1 Profile and performance agreements 151 6.2 Performance indicator scores 155 6.3 Range of programmes offered 157 6.4 Profile of the UvA 158 6.5 Collaboration in Amsterdam 159 6.6 Accountability for AAA initiatives 169 6.7 Embedment of valorisation within the UvA 173 6.8 Valorisation indicators 177 6.9 Conclusion Appendices 179 Appendix 1. Range of programmes offered 182 Appendix 2. Accreditation profile 185 Appendix 3. Research assessments since 2011 187 Appendix 4. Overview of special and sponsored chairs 195 Appendix 5. Facts and figures 204 Appendix 6. Statement pursuant to the Executives’ Pay (Standards) Act The Executive Board From left to right: Prof. Hans Amman (Vice-President), Prof. Huib de Jong (member and Rector, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences) and Prof. Dymph van den Boom (Acting President and Rector Magnificus). annual report 2015 | university of amsterdam 5 Foreword by the Executive Board Geoffrey Boulton, emeritus professor at the University of Edinburgh, outlined his vision on the future of universities in an eloquent speech at the opening of the 2015-2016 academic year. As he emphasised, higher education institutions’ primary objective is the accumulation and dissemination of knowledge, especially through the education of students. Universities are not ‘supermarkets for public and private products that happen to be in demand’ and should not be solely assessed on the basis of published articles, research or economic innovations. Boulton didn’t pose the question of whether the university of the 21st century would be reformed, but rather how and by whom. This demand for change certainly reverberated around the University of Amsterdam (UvA) this spring, as various activist groups called for the preservation of ‘small’ languages, a greater focus on education, more professional autonomy and reduction of the amount of flexible employment contracts. The Bungehuis was occupied, followed by the Maagdenhuis. The Executive Board responded by publishing a ten-point plan aimed at implementing a wide range of reforms. This turbulent period culminated in the resignation of our highly valued colleague Louise Gunning- Schepers, who stepped down from her position as president of the UvA’s Executive Board in order to make room for change. Concrete steps have since been taken in consultation with the Student Council and Central Works Council. Budgetary decisions are now subject to the right of prior consultation, a new HR agenda has been adopted, a student assessor has been appointed to the Executive Board, and the hall of the Maagdenhuis is now used for debates. The representative advisory bodies have also been strengthened and are now closely involved in the policy-making process and appointment of a new Executive Board president and Rector Magnificus. Two new committees were established at the initiative of the representative advisory bodies and activist groups. One of these committees will be assessing the UvA’s finances and accommodations policies, while the other will be evaluating the aspects of institutional democratisation and decentralisation. In June the UvA published its Strategic Plan for 2015-2020, entitled Boundless Curiosity. The document is based on the pillars of education, research and innovation, supported by talent policies, finances and infrastructure. The aspect of internationalisation is also key to the Strategic Plan, and will be addressed over the coming years. The past few years also saw the UvA achieve especially good results in the areas of education, research and innovation. As regards education, the UvA met the performance agreements concluded with the Minister of Education, Culture and Science in 2012. Among other aspects, these agreements extended to the further improvement of academic success rates, the reduction of dropout rates and professionalisation of lecturers. According to the recently published 2016 National Student Survey, UvA students’ degree of satisfaction with the quality of their degree programmes increased over the course of 2016, in line with the previous year. As in previous years, the UvA received numerous research grants over the course of 2015. At European level, the European Research Council awarded a total of six Starting Grants, two Advanced Grants and no less than five Consolidator Grants to UvA and AMC-UvA researchers. A total of 48 researchers received grants as a part of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) Innovational Research Incentives Scheme: 23 Veni grants, 20 Vidi grants and five Vici grants. The ongoing collaboration in Amsterdam is starting to take concrete form. The Innovation Exchange Amsterdam valorisation centre yielded the Amsterdam-based partner institutions a total of 35 licences, five new businesses and 142 collaboration agreements. These developments also helped the University achieve a higher score in the international rankings: the UvA rose almost 20 places on the Times Higher Education Ranking to its current 58th position. The year 2015 also saw various innovations and successes in the area of education. A few key examples: the UvA will be offering six joint degrees in collaboration with the science faculties at VU University Amsterdam, the new Politics, Psychology, Law and Economics programme proved highly successful in its first year, and the Faculty of Humanities launched a new English-language Bachelor’s track in European Studies – an example set to be followed by various other degree 6 annual report 2015 | university of amsterdam programmes. The past year also saw publication of a thorough report on the importance of blended learning and unbundling – the synergy and interaction between online and face-to-face education – and its potential to contribute to educational innovation and lifelong learning. In anticipation of the additional government grant set to become available as of 2018 as part of the new student loan system, the Executive Board allocated 4 million euros (effective 2016) from its reserves for a variety of purposes including research-intensive education, improved feedback to students and the professionalisation of lecturers. The Brain & Cognition priority area received a boost following the official opening of the new Spinoza Centre, a joint initiative organised by the UvA, VU University Amsterdam, the AMC-UvA and Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. The new centre is equipped with 3 and 7-Tesla fMRI scanners. The external assessment committee ranked the research conducted at the Academic Centre for Dentistry Amsterdam as ‘very good to excellent’. The Sustainable Chemistry research group discovered a cleaner production method for precious metals, while doctoral researcher Nena Tromp was the first to analyse previously unused archives on the criminal case against Slobodan Miloševi c. ´ In 2015 QuSoft was launched: the Netherlands’ very first research centre for the development of quantum software. The new facility is also one of few such centres anywhere in the world and will serve to further strengthen our country’s leading international position in the field of quantum information science. The UvA also partnered with Qualcomm Technologies to establish a research lab on advanced machine learning technologies for the processing of sensory data, including image recognition on mobile and built-in systems. Naturally, these are just a few examples aimed at illustrating the breadth and diversity of education, research and innovation at the UvA.