Activistenpartij UvA
The Activistenpartij UvA aims to unite all radical, intersectional, decolonial, and progressive students at the university. We are active year-round, spanning across all campuses and uniting Dutch and international students of all backgrounds, cultures and identities.
We advocate for a truly democratic, accessible, and inclusive university. We know that real systemic change cannot be brought about within the institutional system alone, which is why we’re also active outside of the councils; in the hallways and on the street. From the very foundation of the “medezeggenschap” to an affordable canteen, student action drives progress!
We fight for an affordable and accessible education, abolition of punitive systems like the BSA, and better support for international students. The university should be a place to learn and grow, not a diploma factory! We want an education policy that takes student-wellbeing seriously and respects working students. Finally, we demand an end to our university’s complicity in genocide and resist the criminalisation of peaceful protests.
Democratise, decarbonise, decolonise!
Click on any motion below to see the parties explination
The UvA should cut ties with fossil fuel companies like Shell
Fully agree
Decarbonisation is one of our core principles. Fossil Fuel companies cooperate with universities to greenwash their image while destroying our planet. We are fighting for climate justice and therefore urge the university to cut all ties.
The canteen should be deprivatized.
Fully agree
The privatization of the canteen is causing unaffordable food prices for non-inclusive food options. The Nieuwe Mensa is showing that it is possible to provide affordable, vegan food options without making profits off the backs of students. We want a subsidised university canteen which offers affordable food for everyone. Our list-leader and co-founder of the Nieuwe Mensa, Francesco, is aiming to expand it to more campuses and to further deprivitise the canteen.
The University must prioritise active diversity policies and include decolonial perspectives in the curriculum
Fully agree
While some programmes already include decolonial perspectives in their curriculum, this is still varying a lot between faculties. We are fighting for a decolonial society, inside, and outside of the university context. This means that we are also aiming for a decolonial curriculum. This will not only help to showcase societal inequalities to further combat them, but it will also enrich students' education by tackling biases evoked by WEIRD (Western, educated, industrialised, rich, and democratic) approaches.
The UvA should invest in more accessibility for students with functional limitations, such as guiding lines for people with visual impairment, as well as sensitivity towards these students
Fully agree
The university should be an inclusive learning space for everyone. To achieve this goal a lot still has to be done. For example: The brand new REC-P building which does not offer barrier free access to all floors. Also when looking at access to educational materials for students with visual impairments the university needs to do more! The UvA has been dangling at the bottom in the ranking on students’ experience with accessibility, as the Nationale Studenten Enquete has shown, and this has to change.
There should be mandatory attendance for seminars/tutorials
Disagree
While every student should be encouraged to attend seminars/tutorials for the sake of their own education, we also know that life is not always that simple. We need to find housing, go to doctors appointments, or deal with family issues. Making seminars/tutorials mandatory only adds to the amount of stress that students are already having.
As a way to curb the growth of the university, Dutch language courses should be a mandatory part of all programs
Disagree
International students and staff members are contributing to the high-quality discourse which can be found at the UvA. Free Dutch courses should be made available to help internationals to integrate but should not be mandatory. Such a requirement would ignore the challenges it brings to students who are already overworked trying to settle in their study programmes while working for their tuition or looking for housing.
The university should be allowed to limit the number of international students.
Neutral
The University of Amsterdam is an internationalised university, and brands itself with its internationality. We think that the perspectives that international students bring to the table are beneficial for both the student body and the university as a whole. Internationalisation and multiculturalism are invaluable resources in academia, but internationalisation as a profit model currently poses major problems for all students.
The UvA should strive to incorporate a broader range of ideological perspectives into its curricula.
Fully agree
Societal and political issues do not stop at the doors of the university. Ignoring them does not lead to a better education. We think that incorporating and explaining ideological perspectives is valuable not only in an academic context but also important to strengthen student engagement with the most important issues of our time. It is important to note however, that we believe that as a baseline people's identities should be respected and there should be zero tolerance for hate speech, racism, xenophobia and homophobia.
The UvA should address problems such as systemic overwork and bad working conditions among its teachers by giving out more permanent contracts.
Fully agree
We stand in full solidarity with UvA´s staff members in regards to better working conditions. Non-permanent contracts cause stress, especially in light of budget cuts. We also fight for better working conditions and fair treatment of service and maintenance workers. The UvA can only be a quality institution if the quality of treatment for all is just.
Programs should have the sole responsibility in deciding whether they teach in Dutch or in English
Agree
Programs should retain autonomy over the language in which they teach, these decisions should come from thoughtful conversations between students and staff in each department. For instance, PPLE would not make sense in Dutch due to its international aspect. The same goes for some other programmes and masters, such as Public International Law. As such, we believe this decision should not be enforced on a central level.
The UvA should comply with the ethical assessments made by its independent committee on third-party collaborations, including cutting the ties with institutions found to be complicit in human rights violations
Fully agree
Our party supports the work of the independent committee, which our members in the CSR has insisted on awarding additional funding during this year’s budget negotiations. At the same time, we believe that their assessments are not worth much unless the UvA follows on their recommendations. We condemn the UvA Board’s attempts to circumvent negative assessment of our ties with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and call on them to comply with the independent committee's decisions.
The executive board of the university should be elected through an open election by the students and worker’s body
Fully agree
Students and staff members are the biggest part of the university's population. Therefore, they should have the opportunity to have a say when it comes to deciding on matters of personnel changes of the executive board (CvB). This not only ensures checks and balances of the board, but also improves the democratic process of the institution. Currently the CvB does not answer to the university community, and often goes against the wishes of the student body.
The university lacks sufficient readily accessible gender-neutral toilets.
Agree
There has already been a lot of progress on this point thanks to our pressure in the council, but there are still things to do. The University must prioritize the increased availability of genderless bathrooms throughout all university campuses, and not just in privileged areas of the university or in areas notably/potentially inaccessible to gender nonconforming students with disabilities.
The UvA should place greater emphasis on protecting and promoting academic freedom
Agree
In the past year, the UvA saw a series of unprecedented attacks on academic freedom, especially against the pro-Palestine initiatives. An acute example was the cancellation of a student-organised meeting with activist Mohammed Khatib, a known advocate for rights of Palestinian prisoners. We fought against this both by direct action and through our work in the student councils. While we also believe that the UvA has an obligation to uphold academic responsibility and ensure social safety, we are convinced that these principles can coexist with academic freedom.
All lectures should be available online for everyone
Fully agree
Access to education for all students is crucial. This means to give equal chances to all students, despite their personal or socio-economic circumstances. Giving access to lecture recordings helps working students, but also everyone who cannot attend lectures due to personal circumstances, like (chronic) illness, mental health reasons, etc. to ensure that education is accessible for everyone.
More investment is needed in interdisciplinary education (providing students with more than just one perspective on a particular subject, such as honours, PPLE or IIS programs)
Agree
With more and more complex societal problems like climate change, ongoing armed conflicts, and rising sea-levels, we also need to invest more into interdisciplinary education. However, this should not go at the cost of other, smaller programmes.
The Binding Study Advice (BSA) should be abolished
Fully agree
The university should be a place of learning and personal growth and not a diploma factory which only looks at performance and forces students to finish studying as fast as possible. There is no conclusive proof that the BSA improves study results. We believe the BSA should be replaced by an Advising Study Advice (ASA), aiming to support students in their studies instead of expelling them from their courses. In the faculty of Humanities, AP council members have fought to abolish the BSA in the past years, which has led to a workgroup and pilot with a non-binding study advice.
Calling the police should be an appropriate response to deal with student protests and demonstrations at the university
Fully disagree
Our university should be a safe space for everyone. We strongly condemn the brutal police violence used on many occasions against our students. Therefore we are clear and loud for "Cops off campus.” The suppression of peaceful protests by calling the police is an antithesis to the principles of open discussion and academic freedom.
The UvA should take a firm stance against the government’s cuts in higher education
Fully agree
The budget cuts imposed by the government harm all members of the university community and are a dangerous signal in the age of rising anti-intellectualism. The cuts in higher education are intrinsically linked to the rise of militarisation that is occurring in the Netherlands and abroad. It is important to condemn the use of education and culture funds to further the complicity of the Dutch state in the ongoing genocide of Palestinians. We demand from our university to stand up for its students and to strongly condemn the budget cuts.
The Numerus Fixus (a limitation in the number of students admitted) should be used to stop the growth of the university
Disagree
The numerus fixus policy has shown itself to be too reliant on the grades students get when in high school, while they are incredibly young. High school grades are not indicative of future success, and reliance upon them is symptomatic of an elitist system which leaves lower and working class students behind. The Activist Party is in full support of limiting the growth of the UvA through a lottery system, the only truly egalitarian selection procedure.
The UvA should involve students in long term plans for study spaces and teaching facilities according to the expected changes in student population
Fully agree
Decisions made by the UvA administration very often go above the heads of our student population. To encourage student engagement with the institution, we need to be more involved in decision-making. This approach would also ensure that new facilities would answer the actual needs of the student community, improving our well-being.
Peaceful occupations should be considered as a legitimate means of protest at the university
Fully agree
Currently, the UvA considers all occupations to be inherently violent and therefore targets for immediate police eviction, even if they do not disrupt the daily activities at our university. This approach is not only detrimental to the safety of all students at the UvA, but is also illegal according to the legal advice received by AP CSR members this year. Our party will always fight to protect students against overreach by the administration and the police.
The UvA should cut ties with Israeli institutions
Fully agree
Israeli educational institutions are deeply complicit in atrocities committed by their government in the occupied Palestinian territories. For instance, Ben-Gurion and Tel Aviv universities cooperate with Israeli military industries on weapons development. The latter also participates in the Erez programme tailored towards the IDF soldiers, who wear uniforms and carry weapons around the campus.
For more information about UvA ties with institutions complicit in genocide, visit https://academiccomplicity.nl/
For more information about UvA ties with institutions complicit in genocide, visit https://academiccomplicity.nl/
All food options should be plant based by default
Agree
We are fighting for affordable food options for everyone. This means that every food provider should offer a vegan version of the dish as a default with non-vegan options as an addition. De Nieuwe Mensa offers a wide a variety of vegan food options and has proven to be very popular among students.
Student & Workers Councils should have the final say in policy decisions
Fully agree
Ever since the introduction of the New Public Management model in the 1990s, the representative institutions of students and staff have been deprived of power and responsibilities. This has led to a notable drop in student interest in the work of the councils, with election turnout decreasing from 60% to barely 15% over the last 25 years. To reverse this process and give back the decision-making power to the student and staff community, we need to empower the councils once more. This aim of democratising our university has always been one of the defining parts of the AP programme, and we will keep fighting for it until it is realised.
Students wishing to take honours courses should be able to do so based on their motivation, regardless of their grades
Agree
On principle, we believe that every student should be given the greatest ability to pursue whatever courses match their interests. We also question whether a simple GPA is an appropriate measure to assess their suitability for a given course.
The UvA should offer free menstrual products at each campus
Fully agree
Nobody should be affected by period poverty! Our council members have fought for more menstruation product dispensers at ALL campuses, in accessible locations, and will continue this fight.
It is the government’s responsibility to provide mental health support for students. Therefore, the university should not spend extra resources on this
Fully disagree
Many students suffer under constant study-related stress, ranging from an increased stress-levels to severe anxiety. In times of budget cuts where the government clearly acts against student interests, the university must step in to accommodate mental health services for their students. The need for mental health support is underscored by the existence of student-run platforms like All-Ears, who are filling places that should be filled by the university.
All board members of study associations should receive equal financial support from the University
Agree
We believe that everyone working on a board for a student organisation or association should earn a livable wage at the university. It’s currently not transparent how it’s decided how much financial support boards receive, plus the amount is not adjusted for inflation.
The university should stop the prioritisation of students from outside the EU in regard to the university provided student housing.
Disagree
As a result of government inaction and failed policies, the housing situation in Amsterdam is horrible for all of us. As such, we believe that the UvA should ensure that it has enough housing to accommodate all international students it invites. At the same time, non-EU students need housing to receive their visa, so it makes sense to ensure they have housing in advance. This aids in the maintenance of a university community that is diverse and welcoming to students from a variety of backgrounds.
The UvA Leadership should strongly oppose governments’ policy plans to reduce the number of international students
Fully agree
The government’s plans as they stand would be catastrophic to the university, effectively destroying many of the study programs currently being offered. We believe that the UvA leadership should stand behind their stated commitment to the international character of our university.
Current UvA House Rules should be amended to ensure that students can fully express themselves politically, culturally and socially
Fully agree
The current UvA House Rules stand in opposition to the most fundamental values of freedom of speech and expression, due to their blanket prohibition of political activity. Even if this rule is not enforced, it creates an atmosphere of uncertainty and fear that creates a chilling effect against student engagement. Our university needs to be a space where everyone can safely enjoy their democratic rights.
The UvA should give more training to the teaching assistants
Fully agree
Education is the highest goal of the university. Therefore, the UvA should invest in the education of our educators. Although most teaching assistants typically receive extensive training in teaching, this often does not extend to PhD candidates and students who teach. We believe they should receive the same level of training as all other teaching assistants in order to provide the highest quality of education possible.
Admission to programs with a limited student capacity should be based on selection procedure rather than random selection through a lottery system
Disagree
The Activist Party is in full support of limiting the growth of the UvA through a lottery system, the only truly egalitarian selection procedure. Selection committees tend to have biases and grades don't represent a person. Research has shown that a lottery system is the least biased way of limiting student capacity.