Landelijk Overleg Fracties

Finance is perhaps a boring subject for many, but still a very important portfolio since money is needed for everything. It is therefore very useful for your council year to understand how money flows within your university so that you can lobby accordingly.

During the year, various standard finance-related papers appear on the agenda, such as the kwartaalreportage (quarterly reports), the begroting (the budget)  and the kaderbrief (framework letter). De begroting is dealt with at the end of the calendar year – pretty soon, in other words. The council has instemmingsrecht (the right of consent) on the main points of the budget. In June, the kaderbrief is on the agenda. This determines the broad outlines of the upcoming budget and also requires instemming (council approval). Here, you as a council member can make a fist towards the Executive Board about topics where you think money should go.

During the training we will go through three important documents: the Universitair Verdeel Model (UVM – University Distribution Model), the kaderbrief and the begroting.

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The availability of menstrual products and whether they should be free of charge has been a hot topic for the past years. In February 2021, the Student Council of the Vrije Universiteit (SRVU) in Amsterdam started self-dispensing free menstrual products to students and staff members. Their approach was mainly that the products should be made available to combat menstrual poverty. 

Around the same time, Utrecht University also started a pilot together with the participation party Lijst VUUR, which made free menstrual products available to staff and students at the service desks. Their approach was slightly different from the one in Amsterdam, seeing that their aim was to help people with an unexpected period.

The pilot in Utrecht was so successful that it will now become a permanent facility. However, there always remain snags in the implementation. For instance, the products could not be collected anonymously, e.g. from a vending machine, but people had to ask for them at a service desk. There were also questions about the price of the products. Should the products be provided free of charge? Is an university as an organization responsible for dispensing such products? What should one pay attention to when running such a pilot?

With our own board member Remi, who was responsible for the pilot at Utrecht University, and some interesting speakers, we will approach the provision of menstrual products at the university from several perspectives. We will also elaborate on the implementation of the pilot at Utrecht University.

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The most depressing day of 2023 falls on 16 January. Thus a good reason to discuss the state of student welfare in the Netherlands on 17 January. With students from hogescholen and universities, we will engage in a discussion with the LSVb to see what is needed to improve student welfare. We will also gain inspiration by discussing the facilities different institutions have with each other. For example, some students have developed great initiatives during the lockdown, such as Frisse Gedachtes. Also because of a huge amount of money made available by the government to improve student-wellbeing during the corona pandemic  a lot of new initiatives emerges. What can we learn from these initiatives created during the pandemic? Which ones are here to stay?

Do you have a good initiative? Let us know in advance at lof@lsvb.nl. 

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A university faculty led by a multi-person board must always have a student member. This student then has the function of (student) assessor. A Student Assessor ensures that the views of students within the faculty are heard in management-level decisions. The assessor thus sits in on meetings that are normally closed to students, providing a peek behind closed doors.

Assessors at faculty level have thus existed for some time, but by no means all universities have a central assessor yet. The UvA was the first, Groningen and Utrecht followed, and the HvA too currently has a central assessor. But what exactly is the added value of an assessor and what does this person do at central level? What exactly is the administrative difference with the medezeggenschap?

On this evening, a number of assessors from both the college and the university will talk about their experience in their time as assessors. Free refreshments will be available.

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