Student organisation ISO launches vacancy platform

Student organisation ISO has set up a vacancy platform for anyone who wants to do a board year or other extracurricular activities alongside their studies: “Many students don’t know what options are out there.”

On the ‘bovenop je studie’ website, students can now find vacancies for all kinds of volunteer roles, committees and board positions. “We have noticed for some time that fewer and fewer students are doing a board year or taking part in student participation bodies”, says Sarah Evink, chair of the Interstedelijk Studenten Overleg. “Some students would like to do something alongside their studies but are not sure what the options are.”

The student organisation hopes that the vacancy platform will offer a solution. “Students can easily see what the options are and what suits them”, Evink says.

Is the vacancy platform only for research university and university of applied sciences students?

“Vocational education student organisations are also free to post vacancies. It is not about internships, because those simply belong to the study programme. But for example student and study associations or participation bodies can post their vacancies there.”

How can students use the vacancy platform?

“They can search for vacancies by province and nationwide. In the province of Groningen, for instance, there is currently a vacancy for the board of Keiweek, the introduction week there. But there are also several vacancies online for national board years. ISO is on there too!”

“You can also filter by the number of months you can commit or by the number of hours you want to spend per week. That is important because many students have little time. We notice that they would actually like to do more alongside their studies, but still do not choose to do so.”

Why is that?

“Many students are worried about money and want to graduate as quickly as possible to avoid high student debts. As a result, they have little time for extracurricular activities. Many student organisations now risk disappearing and that is very worrying.”

“We have sent a letter about this to the minister, but we have not yet received a response. That is why we have now taken action ourselves and set up this vacancy platform. But much more is needed and the government has to help with that.”

Why are these board years and other extracurricular activities so important?

“If associations no longer have a board, an important part of Dutch student culture will disappear. You need students to organise activities; not only drinks, but also introduction weeks, sports tournaments, pub lectures or career events. Students experience a lot of performance pressure and stress. If the fun activities disappear, that does not help to ease that pressure.”

“Moreover, you learn a lot. I myself spent a year in student participation and you gain important skills there that you will take with you later in your work. Besides, student participation is an important part of democracy within education. If the student voice is missing, decisions are made about them instead of with them, and that ultimately harms the quality of education.”