annual report 2011 | university of amsterdam 1 Annual Report 2011 University of Amsterdam 2 annual report 2011 | university of amsterdam Credits Published by University of Amsterdam May 2012 Design www.april-design.com Photography Suzanne Blanchard | Bob Bronshoff | Yvonne Compier | Fred van Diem | Dirk Gillissen | Monique Kooijmans | Hanne Nijhuis | Jeroen Oerlemans | Date van Utteren | Peter Valckx | Wilbert van Woensel | Bert Zuiderveen | ACE | ACIL | CSCA | Hollandse Hoogte | KNAW | NWO Information University of Amsterdam Communications Office P. O. Box 19268 1000 gg Amsterdam The Netherlands +31 (0)20-525 2929 www.english.uva.nl © University of Amsterdam Disclaimer: This translation is provided for information purposes only. In the event of a difference of interpretation, the original Dutch version of this document is binding. No rights can be derived from the content of this publication. annual report 2011 | university of amsterdam 3 Contents 5 Foreword 7 Message from the Supervisory Board 11 1. Teaching and research 11 1.1 Public profile 14 1.2 Research 18 1.3 Teaching 23 1.4 Corporate social responsibility and innovation 27 2. Organisation 27 2.1 Quality of staff 30 2.2 Ties with staff, students and alumni 31 2.3 Reliable and sustainable services 33 2.4 Targeted campus infrastructure 36 2.5 Sustainability 37 2.6 Finances 41 3. Administration 41 3.1 Administrative structure 46 3.2 Remuneration data 51 Appendices 51 Appendix 1 Study programmes and programme assessments 56 Appendix 2 Research assessments 57 Appendix 3 Abbreviations and clarifications 59 Key data 60 Facts and figures UvA-HvA EXECUTIVE BOARD FLTR: Dr Jet Bussemaker (Rector HvA), Paul Doop (Vice-President), Dr Louise Gunning-Schepers (President), Prof. Dymph van den Boom (Rector Magnificus UvA) annual report 2011 | university of amsterdam 5 Foreword The University of Amsterdam (UvA) entered 2011 with a highly ambitious Strategic Plan for the period 2011-2014 entitled An Eye for Talent. As an action plan, the Annual Report 2011 reflects the general structure of this Strategic Plan. Before focusing on the details, I am pleased to inform readers that the UvA’s financial position remains strong, as is clearly reflected in the Annual Statement of Accounts included in the expanded Dutch edition of the Annual Report. This strength is important because it gives us the freedom to focus all our energies on pursuing our core ambitions. Though the UvA remains acutely aware of current political uncertainties and the likely financial repercussions, we wish – and are able – to act on the basis of our own strengths. Sound financial management is the first step in this direction, and the encouraging reports from our accountant are directly reflected in the UvA’s teaching and research agenda. Our core ambitions were also subsequently transposed into the UvA Profile and performance agreements that were submitted to the Dutch State Secretary for Education, Culture and Science. In 2011, the UvA-HvA Executive Board said farewell to its president, Karel van der Toorn, who oversaw the process of drafting the UvA’s Strategic Plan and has now resumed his former position as professor of Religion and Society at the Faculty of Humanities. In March 2011, we were pleased to welcome new member Jet Bussemaker, rector of the Hogeschool van Amsterdam, University of Applied Sciences (HvA), to the UvA-HvA Executive Board. Her membership in the Board means a balance has now been achieved whereby UvA and HvA interests can be considered side by side. Happily, the Executive Board was once again complete at the time of publication of this Annual Report. In the past year, the UvA also said farewell to the chairman of its Supervisory Board, Prof. Niek Urbanus. Niek accomplished a great deal during his period in office, and his efforts on behalf of both the UvA and the HvA are legendary. His departure was marked as befitted the occasion. But it is not so much the UvA-HvA Executive Board that determines whether the UvA is successful in achieving its core aims. Rather it is the thousands of talented staff members together with the deans who are the most important ‘directors’ of the changes that are needed in order to guarantee our future as a leading international university. I look forward to working with all the staff, deans and Board members as we continue to shape the UvA’s agenda and transform our ambitions into reality. Dr Louise Gunning-Schepers President of the UvA-HvA Executive Board 6 annual report 2011 | university of amsterdam annual report 2011 | university of amsterdam 7 Message from the Supervisory Board The UvA Supervisory Board met on ten occasions in 2011, including seven times together with the UvA-HvA Executive Board. The main topics in the reporting year were the new Strategic Plan and the related institutional Profile, regional cooperation, preparations for the Institutional Audit, accommodation plans and the implementation of the new Student Information System (SIS), as well as filling the newly vacant positions in the UvA Supervisory Board and UvA-HvA Executive Board. A number of important changes affected the composition of the UvA Supervisory Board and the UvA-HvA Executive Board in 2011. On 1 March, Prof. N.A.M. Urbanus stepped down as chairman of the Supervisory Boards of both the UvA and the Hogeschool van Amsterdam, University of Applied Sciences (HvA). During his impressive tenure, which spanned forty years, Prof. Urbanus served in various capacities at the UvA and the HvA, and was instrumental in bringing about the partnership between these two institutions. He was also the first person to assume the newly instituted shared chairmanship of the two independent Supervisory Boards. Pending the appointment of a suitable successor, the UvA Supervisory Board chose Ms I. Brakman from among its members to serve as acting chairman of both Supervisory Boards. In March, the UvA Supervisory Board was pleased to welcome Dr M. Bussemaker as a new member of the UvA-HvA Executive Board and rector of the HvA. Dr Bussemaker is well acquainted with the complexities of Amsterdam’s higher education sector, having obtained her doctorate at the UvA and worked for many years as a university lecturer at both the UvA and the VU University Amsterdam. In July, UvA Executive Board president Karel van der Toorn announced his decision to step down following a difference of opinion about the direction and pace of strategic changes at the UvA. During his five years as president, Karel van der Toorn was a champion of collaborative initiatives in higher education, and contributed to the UvA’s national partnerships with the HvA and the VU University Amsterdam, a concrete result of which was the establishment of Amsterdam University College. Inter- nationally, he was involved in developing ties with universities in the BRIC countries, particularly India and China. Under his leadership, great strides were also made in the operational management of the UvA and the HvA. His departure had a major impact on both institutions, and for this reason the UvA Supervisory Board approached the subsequent process of recruiting a new UvA-HvA Executive Board president with the utmost care. The UvA Supervisory Board appointed UvA-HvA Executive Board vice-president P.W. Doop as Acting President on 4 July 2011. Aside from the vacant chairing seats of the UvA Supervisory Board and the UvA-HvA Executive Boards, various other seats on the UvA Supervisory Board are due to fall vacant in the period ahead as members reach the end of their maximum terms. To address this situation, the Dutch State Secretary for Education, Culture and Science Halbe Zijlstra and the UvA Supervisory Board agreed to appoint a formateur to head the process of filling these vacancies. Former Secretary-General of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, Koos van der Steenhoven, agreed to assume this role. The UvA Supervisory Board asked Mr van der Steenhoven to draw up a job description for the position of president of the UvA-HvA Executive Board, and in the late summer of 2011 he began interviewing 40 internal and external parties about the future direction of the two institutions, and about the chairman and president profiles that would provide the best ‘match’. Towards the end of 2011, the representative advisory bodies approved the profiles drawn up for both positions and the UvA Supervisory Board initiated recruitment procedures. In consultation with the current Board, Mr van der Steenhoven is supervising the identification of candidates for the UvA Supervisory Board vacancies on behalf of the State Secretary. In the spring of 2011, the UvA presented its Strategic Plan 2011-2014: An Eye for Talent, identifying the UvA-HvA Executive Board’s roadmap for strengthening the UvA’s position at home and abroad. The path outlined in this plan was then developed into a detailed profile designed to distinguish 8 annual report 2011 | university of amsterdam teaching and research at the UvA from that at other universities. In their final form, the profiles drawn up by all the Dutch universities will enable them to make performance agreements with the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science before the summer of 2012, in line with the General Agreement (Hoofdlijnenakkoord) concluded between the Association of Universities in the Netherlands and the same Ministry in the autumn of 2011. The UvA Supervisory Board held frequent meetings with the UvA-HvA Executive Board to confer on decisions guiding this process and their effect on UvA strategies both in general and in relation to the HvA. Another major component of the UvA-HvA Executive Board’s roadmap for the future is the pursuit of regional partnerships, of which the Amsterdam Economic Board (AEB, formerly the Economic Development Board of the Amsterdam metropolitan region), created in response to the OECD report Higher Education in Regional and City Development: Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2010), is one example.