Campus columnist 2025: education gap is recurring theme among submissions

Personal experiences were the main source of inspiration for many participants in this year's campus columnist competition. For example, one of the students wrote about Spotify Wrapped, the summary of what they had listened to last year. The aspiring columnist was shocked to see that all the top songs were from the playlist they listened to while they studied. Another student wrote about coming to campus by train after oversleeping, eating an apple for breakfast and getting shocked at the exorbitant price of a cappuccino at the station. This student wasn't the only one who wrote about NS, by the way: another participant was excited to explore the country with their free OV Chipkaart, only to get demotivated by how crowded trains were. "With so many customers, how can you still make a loss? Bunch of amateurs."

But simply sharing personal experiences was not enough for the judges. They preferred the columns that added a deeper layer to these experiences, transcending the personal. For example, several aspiring columnists wrote about the education gap. One of them talked about what it is like to be a first-generation student whose path to university was much longer, starting in vocational education. Another student discovered that her hairdresser was an old classmate from primary school. She felt uncomfortable when the hairdresser said she was someone from "a higher level" because she went to university. "We need to learn to look at the person behind the diploma, rather than the diploma behind the person," the contestant writes.

The participants running for a column on the English page focused on privilege. A Mexican student describes how growing up in a privileged milieu in Mexico helped her overcome obstacles in the Netherlands, while a UU employee described how privileges can influence students' path to success.

The participants were less inclined to write about hot topics this year. Only one entry discussed the conflict in Palestine. "As I see students passionately standing up for Palestine, I wonder: 'What does this change mean for the campus?’ Surprisingly, there were no entries about the harsh austerity measures imposed by the Dutch government.

There were fewer submissions this year, compared to last year. In total, DUB receive nine submissions in Dutch and seven submissions in English. Most of them were students: only three employees joined the competition. Each participant was asked to submit two columns in either Dutch or English. The judges have chosen three nominees for each page and you can now read the best column of each nominee. 

The winners will be announced on Wednesday, January 22, at DUB's New Year's party. Both winners will receive the Erik Hardeman scholarship (1,000 euros each) and publish a monthly column on DUB in 2025. 

The three nominees for the Dutch page

The three nominees for the Dutch page are Lisa Schlüsser, Merlijn van Leerzem and Bastiaen Huijnen.

Lisa Schlüssler (20) is a second-year student at University College Utrecht, focusing on media, social geography and politics. In her nominated column The World at Your Feet, she delves into the paradox of your college years supposedly being the time of your life, but at the same time, you are facing tough existential questions. "It is precisely this abundance of opportunities that sometimes feels suffocating," she writes. 

Merlijn van Leerzem (19) is a first-year History student who has already written several opinion pieces for various media. The jury was charmed by his column about ChatGPT, which he associates with Galileo. His theory is that students may use ChatGPT all they want, but, ultimately, guts and creativity must come from them.

Bastiaen Huijnen (23) is a Master's student in Legal Research focusing on criminal law. He is currently doing an internship at the weekly magazine De Groene Amsterdammer. His column The Romanticised Cigarette caught the judges' eye. In this column, he analyses the cigarette as a cultural icon, wondering why students are so attracted to smoking.

The three nominees for the English page

The three nominees for the English page are Tara Neary, Matthew Tan and Hubert Matuszewski.

Tara Neary (24) is a Master's student at the Graduate School of Life Sciences majoring in Environmental Biology. She comes from Ireland and has been living in Utrecht since 2019. Her nominated column is called Say a little prayer: Saint, Slavic gods, and a successful fieldwork season. In this column, she reminisces about a fieldwork trip to the Czech Republic where she faced bad weather conditions while having to work with drones. Desperate, she and a colleague resorted to praying to local gods. It is thanks to them that everything ended well, she says.

Matthew Tan (29) came to Utrecht in 2015 to study Liberal Arts & Sciences, which he chained with a Master's in Medicine. He works as a junior lecturer in Anatomy at the Faculty of Medicine. His column Bring Friends Home Instead of Laundry on the Weekends talks about how international students can get closer to their Dutch counterparts. He calls on Dutch students to stay in Utrecht more often on weekends and be open to hanging out with people outside their association bubble. And if you visit your parents at the weekend, why not take an international student along?

Hubert Matuszewski (23) is a Master's student in Climate Physics. He's got Master's degrees in Liberal Arts & Sciences and Voice Technology from Groningen University. He was born in Poland and grew up in Ireland. Though his column is in English, the title is in Dutch: Op de Fiets in de Winter. He writes that Dutch winter is cold but never cold enough to be "cool". He describes what it is like to ride around on a bicycle in such weather conditions.

The judges
This year, the jury was comprised of Beatrice de Graaf, Professor in History of International Relations; Nieske Vergunst, Communications Advisor at the Faculty of Science; Quintijn de Leng, Master's student of Urban & Economic Geography and former campus columnist; Marjorie van Elven, editor of DUB's English page; and Ries Agterberg, DUB's Editor-in-Chief. All columns were anonymised before being submitted to the judges.