unifying internal policy

Student Affairs

Without students, there is no university. Those who enrol do so to get a decent education, and that is what we offer. But being a student is so much more than just getting that degree. We want to offer students opportunities and encourage them to have much broader experiences. A general intellectual education, engaged citizenship with a focus on social problems, an international perspective, a healthy critical and scientific view of facts and opinions, being able to discuss without immediately polarising... The time as a student is also a period in which you get to know new people, with very different backgrounds, your ideas about what you want in life take shape, you can have a lot of fun as well as hard work.

UAntwerpen's mission emphasises that students have a co-creative role. Students have expectations of the university, but the university also has expectations towards them. They are not just customers, they have to help shape the university community and take on responsibilities themselves, individually and in groups. We want students who feel connected to each other and to our university. As a university, we must help ensure that the opportunities are there to have a successful student life, in all its dimensions.

A number of student-related challenges run parallel to those of other sections and we discuss them in the more general sections of this policy vision. Specific concerns we want to address are:

• Student accommodation is an ongoing concern. Together with the other Antwerp higher education institutions, we are looking for a wider and sufficiently diversified offer in cooperation with the private market. We monitor the supply of social lots in the student residences on campus agreed in the ground lease. We also put this on the agenda of the City of Antwerp.
• We are taking initiatives to better handle the reduction in operating contributions for the social sector through cooperation with other partners.
• We want to make appreciation of student representatives (stuvers) even more explicit, including decentralised stuvers. We are exploring different methods to do so.
• As with staff, we also see an increase in the need for psychosocial support among students. A proportion of students in need do not always seem to find these channels. We want to better direct students with care needs to the various internal and external initiatives that exist, paying attention to the diversity of care needs.
• Student associations make an important contribution to a connecting atmosphere between students. We want to encourage our students to make use of the wide and diverse range that exists, from traditional student clubs, to choirs and orchestras, to associations that cater to specific target groups. 
• We are looking at how to streamline communication to student associations through different channels.
• Privatisation and regulations are making it increasingly difficult for student associations to organise low-threshold and low-cost activities, on and off campus. Especially near off-campuses, there are still hardly any places where students can meet outside classes. We offer support in understanding and being able to follow regulations, and actively help find solutions. We realise the planned investments.
• We are further committed to our contacts with the City to strike a good balance between the freedom students seek and the, temporary and local, hindrance this sometimes entails. We want to ensure that students build a good relationship with the city and also see a future here.