UU Council elections: approximately 25 percent of staff and students voted

23.6 percent of students cast their votes for the UU Council, but they could also vote for the faculty councils. The turnout for the faculty councils of Veterinary Medicine and Humanities was even higher than for the University Council.

Veterinary Medicine students seem to be the most motivated to vote. Last year, 35.5 percent of them voted for the faculty council, compared to 42.3 percent this year. Veterinary Medicine students have been actively campaigning, which seems to be paying off.

Humanities saw a similar increase, from 17.4 per cent in 2024 to 24.9 percent now. The budget cuts that are leading to the discontinuation of certain programmes may have played a role.

Interest was lowest among students from the Faculty of Medicine, whose council had a turnout of 7.9 percent.

The turnout for the staff section of the University Council was 26 percent this year. Turnout was higher for almost all faculty councils and the employees’ consultative body. Only the students of the Faculty of Science didn't seem very keen on voting. Only 16.7 percent of them did so for the faculty council. 52.8 percent of staff members at the Faculty of Law, Economics & Governance voted. No other faculty achieved such a high percentage.

Growing interest
Interest in voting for the University Council has been growing in recent years among students and staff. Until 2022, approximately one-fifth of all students voted for the council, with 2018 marking a record turnout, when 26.8 percent of students cast their votes. 2022, marked by the pandemic, was a low point: only 11 percent of students took the trouble to vote. Since then, interest has been growing. This year, 23.6 percent of students voted, compared to 18 percent last year.

This year, there were five parties to choose from. Three parties have stated in their election programmes that they will urge the Executive Board to sever ties with Israeli universities, an issue that continues to stir emotions. Just before the elections, pro-Palestinian demonstrators occupied the courtyard of the University Library in the city centre. They are still there.

Staff representation on the University Council
In recent years, interest among staff for a seet in the University Council has declined. Although elections are held every year for students, they are held every two years for staff. In 2023, there were a total of 15 candidates for the 12 seats. This year, there were exactly 12 candidates.

Unlike the student representation, the staff representation works with four districts: alfa/gamma, science/veterinary medicine, support staff and medicine. For the alfa/gamma district, there was one more candidate than seats, which means that elections are necessary according to the electoral regulations. Meanwhile, the science/veterinary medicine district had one candidate fewer than the number of seats. To prevent seats from remaining vacant, other electoral districts may fill these seats. This means that all 12 candidates who were eligible for election would have been elected to the council even without elections.

Nevertheless, this did not really dampen interest in voting for the University Council. This year, 26 percent of all employees voted for the University Council, compared to 27.2 percent in 2023 when there was more choice.

An employee emailed DUB to say that he and his colleague had not voted. This was because they wanted to know the positions of Lijst Vlam and the UPP (for PhD & Candidates) and what would therefore be the best choice for them. However, this employee wrote that he could not find the election programmes for this year. Neither Lijst Vlam nor the UPP had updated their websites – only information from 2023 was available. He wrote: “Do these parties expect us to vote for them if they can't even be bothered to put their current election programmes on their websites? Because we don't know who is standing for election and what they stand for, we have decided not to vote.”

Turnout for the 2025 participation council elections