Student and staff representatives discuss how Wittenborg can be improved for both students and staff

On 21 February, the Student and Staff Conference Day kicked off at Wittenborg's Spoorstraat location. This parallel discussion, led by two faculty representatives, had a wide range of topics on the table, from how to make Wittenborg's space more open for collective gatherings and conviviality to mental health. The aim of the conference day was back-to-back discussions with the student representatives on what could be better for both students and staff. 

During the morning, staff met to discuss the structure and working environment in the workplace. Topics ranged from choosing the next SDG theme to creating a more inviting environment for students and staff to meet within Wittenborg. The meeting was led by staff representative Dadi Chang. It was a hybrid meeting, meaning faculty and staff members abroad or at home and student representatives from Amsterdam could also participate in the discussion.

The Programme Committee meeting was the next on the agenda. Held separately for each of the course programmes, the bachelor’s (BBA) programme, the MBA programme and the MBM (MSc) programme, each meeting was led by 2 staff representatives and a few student representatives from the respective programmes. Set in a roundtable discussion, issues pertaining to the programmes such as the curriculum, the content, the horizontal and vertical cohesion of the programmes, the distribution of the study load as well as the knowledge or skills acquired were discussed. The outcomes of these discussions were then to be presented and further discussed during the Plenary Feedback session.

Open discussion on mental health

After lunch came the plenary feedback sessions, where the results of the student and staff representative meetings and programme committee meetings were presented and discussed by students, faculty and staff. The central theme of this interesting and inspiring session was Mental Health and Wellbeing. Students and staff talked about their struggles with mental health and shared their experiences with the Dutch health care system. Wittenborg helps students and staff with mental health problems in every possible way.

The day ended with a positive and joyful gathering with drinks, with student representatives and staff members concluding that it had an inspiring and fruitful day, with valuable feedback that WUAS can use to improve the institution.

WUP 10/03/2023
by Hanna Abdelwahab and Niels Otterman
©WUAS Press