Getting older isn’t always something you want to celebrate, especially not when one turns 390. Often, but not always. Today, Monday, January 10th is the birthday of our university.
Celebrating its dies natalis since 1632, the UvA isn’t the oldest university in the Netherlands, the University of Leiden has existed for 57 more years. When it was founded in 1632, it went by the name of Athenaeum Illustre. You can still visit the original entrance of this school: the Agnietenkapel! The Athenaeum Illustre was considered a third-level education, but – without getting into boring Latin complexities – did not have the same rights as a university. It took until 1877 for our university to accomplish this.
Today at three o’clock an online event is held to celebrate the UvA’s birthday. It being online is ironically fitting, given the fact that digitalization is a key theme this year. A topic that was also salient on the UvA’s institutional plan for the years 2021-2026 and a topic the UvA has surveyed students about before. And as some of you may know, the digitalization in question has also caused some uproar before. Our headmaster Karen Maex will give a speech about digitalization and discuss it with political scientist Eefje Steenvoorden and political communication scientist Michael Hameleers. Rick van der Ploeg, a university professor in environmental economics will give a speech about political and social obstacles preventing a committed climate policy. A topic that the UvA has shown an interest in before: just look at the bachelor Future Planet Studies!
The online event can be visited here.