Ever since the Maagdenhuis occupation in March 2015, the main communication channel of the Rethink UvA community has been its email list. The list is meant to update each other about what’s going on in Dutch and international higher education politics, and at the UvA in particular. Regularly, there are also discussions. The traffic is modest.
If you are inspired by the recent WOinActie, please join us!
There is also a website with a blog, a Rethink UvA Facebook page and active Twitter account.
You can subscribe here: https://list.uva.nl/mailman/listinfo/rethink-uva
Once you’re subscribed, you can post here: [email protected]
Website: http://rethinkuva.org/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1409697112666035/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rethinkUvA
What is ReThink UvA?
ReThink UvA was created as a forum of UvA employees at the time of the 2015 student and staff protests, who demanded structural reforms in education and research. Sympathetic to the objectives of similar initiatives, such as the New University student movement, Humanities Rally, Science in Transition and Reform Dutch Universities (H.NU), it deplores the output-focused management of higher education that is currently the norm and that has severely compromised the quality of both university education and research.
ReThink UvA is deeply concerned about output-oriented policies, involving and/or resulting in increasing numbers of temporary contracts, funding being allocated based on the number of graduates or the number of publications, and merger and relocation plans carried out without staff involvement or support. It takes the position that policy choices should not be based on financial return, but first and foremost be guided by scientific/scholarly and educational needs, instead of compromising the core goals of our university: quality education and research.
Begun as a mainly UvA-wide grassroots movement, ReThink UvA has always welcomed subscribers from outside the University of Amsterdam and has since evolved into a mailing list with a much more national (and occasionally international) scope.