Annual themes

Each year the student delegation of the Faculty Council (FR) has several annual themes. In addition to the standard tasks of the FC to look along with the work of the faculty board and to give them solicited and unsolicited advice, the FC is also free to work on a topic themselves and, for example, conduct research, give advice or start a project around a certain theme.  

These annual themes thus give direction to the various issues we will work on in the coming year. To this end, the FC makes a plan at the beginning of the year with a number of goals we want to strive for. At the end of the year we reflect on all the steps taken and which goals we have achieved. For the coming year we have four annual themes: 

• Inclusive and accessible education 
• Workload at study associations 
• Student wellbeing and social safety 
• Student participation and motivation 

Below you can read more about our goals and ambitions within these annual themes. And would you like to share your ideas, concerns and/or feedback on these points with us? Then you will make us very happy! You can do that through this survey and you can also always reach us by email or talk to us if you run into us! This way you help us in our task of representing the students’ voices 🙂

Inclusive and accessible education 

Within our first year theme, we are going to deal with the quality of education and the university for students with disabilities. Within our university and faculty we are already working hard to make the university and education as nice, accessible and inclusive a place as possible for everyone. But this is something where we are constantly looking to improve. This year we want to look at how we can do our part to make this happen. For example, we want to work on examination accommodations, building accessibility, the possibility of online/hybrid education, and the inclusivity and accessibility of the courses themselves. Lynn, Rik and Ylana will be working with this year’s theme, so you can always reach out to them! 

Workload at study associations 

Last year, the one of the Faculty Council’s annual themes focused on the workload of the board of study associations. This year we want to build on their work by looking at follow-up steps to reduce the workload. We want to do this in close cooperation with the assessor, other (former) board members and the Faculty Board. If you have any ideas, feel free to talk to Mel, Maartje and Britt! 

Student wellbeing and social safety 

We will also be working again this year on student wellbeing and social safety. For the past two years, the FC has also worked on this and we believe that this is an essential issue for students and that it is therefore an annual theme that we want to continue this year, to create continuity. For this coming year, we aim to achieve these three goals:  

• Inform students where to go with problems/questions about (mental) health.  
• Making student psychologists more accessible, by looking at waiting times, fees and transparency in the availability of student psychologists.  
• Bring sexual wellbeing to the attention of the UU and students. 

Want to have a chat with one of us about this topic? Then Britt, Ming and Rik are always available to talk about this! 

Student participation and motivation  

Student participation can hardly be ignored in the image of Utrecht University. As with many other educational institutions, many projects and initiatives revolve around student participation. Student participation is about the crucial active role students take on within various activities. Think for example of the Inspraak and the role of mentor for first-year students.  

In the past, this student participation stemmed mainly from an intrinsic motivation to be part of something or to contribute to something. However, we see that students increasingly want a “reward” for their efforts and that voluntary or for a small fee no longer has a foundation. Various environmental factors probably also play an important role here, such as financial stress (loan system).  

Therefore, we want to conduct research into students’ motivation for student participation. We will do this in cooperation with the program committees, so that we can reach as many students as possible from all programs. From the FC, Lynn will work on this in cooperation with the program committees. 

In short: four important themes on which we are going to work hard in the coming year to do our part! Would you like to share your ideas, concerns and/or feedback on this theme with us? Then fill out the survey, email us at sw-faculteitsraadstudenten@uu.nl, send us a dm or speak to one of us when you run into us on campus!