Important Matters
Budget cuts
Higher education in the Netherlands has been facing ongoing budget pressures. UCU has now gone through two rounds of cuts, approximately 10% last year and an additional 5% this year. After extensive work by various stakeholder groups, a series of decisions have been made to be implemented by fall 2026.
Below is a full overview of the changes that are most relevant to students.
- Application Fee: UCU has introduced an €85 application fee for prospective students, in line with Utrecht University’s €100 fee. Dutch diploma holders (by law) and students with refugee status are exempt.
- Thesis Process: The independent second examiner of the thesis will use a more streamlined procedure that makes the process less time-consuming
- Writing Centre: The UCU Writing and Skills Centre has been discontinued. Students can still access writing and other support through the UU Skills Lab, see here: https://students.uu.nl/en/support-and-development/skills-lab.
- Tutoring: In coming semesters, individual tutors will take on more tutees to reduce time spent on team tasks, but the time per student is not reduced.
- Off-Campus Courses: Students may now take a maximum of 2 off-campus courses (1 for students going on exchange). Exemptions can be requested via the Exam Board.
- Discontinued Courses: Coming academic year three alternating INT courses (INTLAS31, INTGAS11, and INTFAS21) are discontinued. Reduction in number of groups and regular changes to the course offer can be found on the course planner or via email updates from UCU Curriculum.
- Rosemary Scholarship Programme: The Rosemary Scholarship Programme has been restructured into a campus fee waiver program, covering the full campus fee for six incoming students per year for double rooms (supporting up to 18 students in total after three years). Students apply to this scholarship when applying to UCU. Students currently benefiting from the existing scholarship will continue to do so. (The Rosemary Orr Sholarship was always and is remaining a resource for incoming students only. If you face financial difficulties throughout your time at UCU please reach out to your tutor, or the Connect Centre. You can also reach out to the student council who will be able to redirect you to the appropriate resources and can guive you access to some academic resources)
Budget Cuts have also impacted the staff community and led to increased work pressure. Knowing that some of the changes may have a significant impact, UCU is actively exploring ways to increase revenue to reduce the impact of current or future cuts as well as to counteract the impacts on work pressure for both staff and students. If you have ideas, concerns, or just want to talk, we’re here during office hours Monday 18:30–19:30 & Thursday 18:00–19:00
Dining Hall
As you know, it was announced to our community on the 2nd of December that UU is looking at selling dining hall.
This comes in the context of the UU strategic housing plan (by “housing,” the housing of facilities is meant, not student housing), which aims to reduce the cost of their buildings. Originally the plan was to relocate UCU entirely and to sell the international campus, but after long waiting, the decision was made to keep it and instead make it more efficient. This means that UCU probably will have to concentrate in Newton, Locke, and College Hall. Voltaire is expected to be repurposed.
There are currently plans being developed to renovate Clock Tower (Cantecleer), but we do not yet know if we will be given this building or if UCU’s activities currently housed in DH could be transferred there.
Although the sale is not a fact yet, we need to begin preparing for the possibility. To this purpose, a working group has been developed, which you can learn more about below. Answers to additional questions, our report detailing the use of Dining Hall sent to the CvB, as well as information on how you can get involved, can also be found here.
Dining Hall Report
To demonstrate the importance of Dining Hall UC Student Council wrote a report explaining the many functions of the building and the value it has to the community. Here you can find the latest version of the report, which was also shared with the Management Team of UCU and the CvB, the Executive Board of the UU.
Dining Hall FAQ
A Hown Hall was held in December to address your questions regarding the potential sale of DH. Since not all of you were able to attend, and because several concerns were raised repeatedly, we have prepared this FAQ. This FAQ summarises the answers to the key questions discussed during the Town Hall. If you have any other question feel free to send them to us by email or drop by our office hours
Working Group
To address the challenges the sale of Dining Hall poses a working group consisting of students and staff was formed. Here you can read who they are and what they do!
Who is in the working group?
The working group consist of student and staff members. There are five students in the working group – Jochem for UCSA, Sara for CAR and Claudia for BarCo. Felicitas in her role as student assessor is on the board as well.
From the staff side Babette, Maarten and Rich joined. There might be another teacher or alumni who will join. The group will be in close communication with Sjoerd Bosgra, UCU’s Managing Director, and people working on the facilities portfolio at the UU.
What does the working group do?
The working group is tasked with coming up with creative ways to relocate the functions of Dining Hall and Voltaire to other buildings on campus. To achieve this they will meet and organize open sessions to discuss how this can be done in a way that takes into account the many different uses both buildings have.
Get Involved!
sign the petition!
https://www.change.org/p/prevent-the-sale-of-the-ucu-dining-hall
Come to the working group events!
The working group will organize open meetings, surveys and many other opportunities for you to share your concerns, ideas and opinions.
Share your thoughts with us!
Alongside specific events you are always welcome to come to the office hours of UC Student Council, UCSA and CAR or even the members of the Management Team. We would love to hear your concerns and any ideas you might have!
Our office hours are Monday & Thursday, 18:00 to 19:00!
Join a board!
And if you want to take a more active approach consider running for one of the student boards next year or join the URaad!
UCU Student Council 