{"id":100414,"date":"2019-06-27T17:18:34","date_gmt":"2019-06-27T15:18:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=100414"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:24:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:24:22","slug":"reduced-voter-turnout-for-university-council-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2019\/06\/27\/reduced-voter-turnout-for-university-council-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"Reduced voter turnout for university council elections"},"content":{"rendered":"

The universities of Nijmegen, Leiden and Amsterdam (UvA) were the only Dutch universities to see an increased number of voters cast their ballots for the council elections. Last year UvA had the lowest turnout of all Dutch universities, but this year it didn\u2019t, thanks to a slight increase (12.7 per cent, up from 11.2 per cent). The increase didn\u2019t exactly make the university ecstatic: \u2018It makes things only marginally better\u2019, UvA magazine Folia<\/a> wrote.<\/p>\n

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Representative bodies have struggled to get students to vote<\/a> for years. Furthermore, they are having a hard time finding enough candidates<\/a> to fill up all the councillors\u2019 positions, which is why Erasmus University<\/a> cancelled its elections altogether this year. The council even conducted an experiment involving university-wide elections rather than faculty-specific elections, to raise its profile. However, it was all in vain, as too few candidates stood for the elections. Only ten students applied for the twelve positions available on the council.<\/p>\n

Greater responsibility<\/h2>

As before, Tilburg University had the largest turnout, but even there, turnout is decreasing (41.8 per cent, down from 45.7 per cent). The four universities of technology scored relatively well, with over one third of their students casting their ballots. However, the turnout percentage is dropping even there.<\/p>\n

It is remarkable that so few students are interested in serving on the university council, since representative bodies play an increasingly prominent part in the way universities are run. In the last few years, university councils have been granted greater responsibility, decision-making powers and authority. In 2018 an agreement was signed<\/a> stipulating that representative bodies and university governors must decide together how to spend the millions of euros that became available when student grants were abolished \u2013 funds that must be allocated by universities and universities of applied sciences to measures designed to improve their degree programmes.<\/p>\n