Excellence and Diversity in a Global City

Annual Review 2013

AUC Scholarship Fund (ASF) research seminar – Around 11% of the Class of 2013 were ASF scholarship recipients. They presented their capstone research projects to the ASF sponsors in a special seminar before the Graduation Ceremony.

Think Tank – AUC present-ed a report on excellence in secondary education to Deputy Minister Sander Dekker, from a Think Tank chaired by AUC Dean Prof. Dr. Marijk van der Wende involving AUC’s partner schools, alumni and corporate partners.

Who’s in Town with Dr. Michael Sandel – In April, as part of our Who’s in Town seminar series, Harvard University professor Dr. Michael Sandel engaged in a Q&A on his most recent book ‘What money can’t buy: the moral limits of markets’.

AUC was proud to be the venue for conferences and seminars, including: • Route 2020: the Future of Large Scale Research Infrastructure, 6

March (Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, Dutch Research Council and Science Park Amsterdam).

• International Women’s Day Round Table, 8 March (AUC and the US Consulate General).

• Beta Career Event, 10 April.• State of University Policy for Progress in Europe seminar, 10 April

(AUC and Empower European Universities).• Grand finale of the Amsterdam Science & Innovation Award 2013, 5

June (Technology Transfer Offices (TTO), Amsterdam).• Fourth Student Research Conference 2013, 20 November (VSNU,

Association of Dutch Universities).

Dr. William Kirby addressed Dies Natalis – The keynote speaker at our 4th Dies Natalis in September was Prof. Dr. William Kirby, Professor of China Studies at Harvard University and member of the AUC International Advisory Board.

Who’s in Town on Shell and Nigeria – Léon Tops and Sola Abulu from Shell Interna-tional discussed with students and staff the various onshore and offshore activities of Shell in Nigeria and the company’s con-tribution to Nigeria’s economy.

Randy W. Berry gave Commencement Address – The 2013 Graduation Ceremony, held in the Aula of the VU University Amsterdam in July, was addressed by the US Consul General to The Netherlands, Mr. Randy W. Berry.

Meet the Masters – In October, AUC presented postgraduate options in cooperation with the AUC Alumni Association and Student Council, AUC faculty, the Ivy Circle, American Consulate and Fullbright Center.

Awards 2012–2013

TEACHER OF THE YEAR AWARDThe winner was Dr. Colleen Doak, who was praised for her consistent good teaching in courses such as Introduction to Public Health, Nutrition and Health, and Epidemiology.

STUDENT ACADEMIC AWARDThe winner was Ianthe Schepel, who graduated summa cum laude in July 2013 with a double major in the Sciences and Humanities, and also received the award of highest distinction for both her theses.

COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARDThe winner was Roanna van den Oever (Science major, Class of 2014), who had worked on a vitamin A cookbook and solar oven in South Africa (Stellenbosch).

Highlights of 2013

Amsterdam Architecture Prize (AAP) 2013 – The new AUC academic building, designed by Mecanoo architects and commissioned by the University of Amsterdam and VU University Amsterdam, was awarded the 2013 Golden AAP.

Enrolment

AUC Scholarship Fund

Graduation, Class of 2013

The total number of students enrolled at AUC in the academic year 2012–2013 was 676. The tables below demonstrate what “excellence and diversity” mean in terms of the composition and performance of the AUC student body.

EXCELLENCE (STUDY SUCCESS)Retention 94%Student performance: GPA ≥ 3.9 (summa cum laude) 13% GPA ≥ 3.5 (cum laude) 52% GPA ≥ 3.0 (Honours degree) 83% GPA < 3.0 17%Study progress: Average number of credits earned 55 per year (incl. drop outs) Average number of credits earned 57 per year (excl. drop outs)Time to degree, Class of 2013: Within 3 years (all) 78% Within 3 years (re-enrolment after year 1) 88%

DIVERSITYMale 37%Female 63%Dutch students 55%International students 45%Dutch minority students* 12%Number of different nationalities 59* niet westerse allochtonen

The aim of the AUC Scholarship Fund (ASF) is to further diversity and excellence in AUC’s student body.

The ASF is sponsored by the VU University Amsterdam, the University of Amsterdam, the City of Amsterdam, the AUC Student Association (AUCSA), and the AUC Alumni Association (AUCAA).

Seven prominent corporate sponsors are currently committed to financial support of the ASF: Shell, Rabobank Amsterdam and Schiphol Group since 2009, KLM, PWC and AkzoNobel since 2012, and USG Professionals since 2013.

In 2012–2013, 70 students received a scholarship. The total amount of scholarships awarded was EUR 532,500.

In 2013 the ASF Diversity Award Programme (DAP) was launched. Every year, 10 DAP Awards worth EUR 5,000 each are available for Dutch students with a minority background who are admitted to AUC.

Meet some of our scholarship students:1 Steven Wang, China2 Semra Palic, Bosnia and Herzegovina3 Ilca Dragos, Romania, 4 Oleksandra Pravednyk, Ukraine5 Yolanda Chen, The Netherlands6 Joao Cruz Farias, Portugal7 Maria Romero, Venezuela8 David Lips, The Netherlands9 Marija Miseviciute, Lithuania

BA BSc Double major Female 88 26 2Male 38 30 1

1

4

7

2

5

8

3

6

9

Alumni

KEY DATA FROM AUC ALUMNI ASSOCIATION (AUCAA)

GRADUATE DESTINATIONS

ACTIVITY AFTER GRADUATION

Data from graduate survey 2013

Graduates in paid employment

Gap year

Other study

Amsterdam (UvA, VU, Duisenberg)

Other countries (France, Italy, Israel)

Germany (Freiburg, Humboldt/Freie)

UK (Oxford, Cambridge, Kings, UCL, LSE, Imperial, Edinburgh)

21%

65%

17%

12%

7%

31%

15%7%

5%31%

3%8%

Other universities in the Netherlands (TUD, RUG, UM, UU, WUR)

USA/Canada (Columbia, Washington, Michigan, Toronto)

Sweden (Karolinska, Uppsala, Lund)

Graduates doing Master or PhD programme

Graduates doing internship or volunteer work

“At AUC I learned how to search for information to evaluate my hypotheses and to look critically at my data. This skill has been very useful in my current internship.” Remco Jongkind, Class of 2013

“At AUC we were challenged and we learned how to challenge ourselves. Not a bad thing in the world of research at least.” Franka van Arendonk, Class of 2013

Multiple answers possible

AUC courses and quality assurance

Study abroad

Financial numbers

AUC offers a broad variety of courses covering almost all academic disciplines. These courses range from ‘Quantum Physics’ to ‘Chinese Studies’ and from ‘Logic’ to ‘Advanced Macro-Economics’. AUC attracts excellent teachers mainly from its parent universities, which is reflected by consistently high teacher evaluations (4.1 on a 5 point scale).

COURSE EVALUATIONS 2012–2013Number of courses* 314Number of teachers 210Teacher quality 4.1Course quality 3.9Response rate 67%* Including parallel groups

ACCREDITATIONIn addition to AUC’s internal and external quality assurance procedures (see figure below), in 2013 AUC applied for re-accreditation from the NVAO (Dutch Flemish Accreditation Organisation). The Accreditation Committee concluded that “the AUC programme not only fulfils the criteria for generic quality that are a condition for re-accreditation, but even surpasses these generic quality standards across the entire spectrum of the programme.”

According to the committee: “AUC managed to design a programme that aims to bring students to excellence, adopting different approaches, ideas and values in the multicultural and global setting of Amsterdam. Reflecting about what makes this institution and its programme stand out among other university colleges and LAS programmes in the Netherlands, the committee concluded it is the element of diversity as well as the opportunities offered by a global city. Both features have been embraced by AUC, its constituent universities and its many partners in academia, business, administration and civil society.”

Standard 1: Intended learning outcomes goodStandard 2: Teaching–learning environment goodStandard 3: Assessment and achieved learning outcomes goodGeneral conclusion good

AUC QUALITY ASSURANCE CYCLE

EXPENDITURE (EUR X 1000)Faculty and support staff 5,430.0Academic housing & services 2,280.0Development projects & grants 764.0Student housing 229.5Material costs 189.5Total 8,893.0

REVENUE (EUR X 1000)Tuition fees & government funding 5,730.0Grants & subsidies 2,256.0Other 60.0Total 8,046.0Deficit is smaller than the budgeted start-up deficit

FACULTY & SUPPORT STAFF“AUC sets high standards when recruiting personnel and this bears fruit: it does not come as a surprise for the committee that in student evaluations, faculty score well on academic expertise, accessibility and commitment to students.” NVAO 2013

2012–2013 Number FteAUC core teaching faculty 42 28.97 of which also tutors 27 7.04Teaching faculty from UvA 57 5.03Teaching faculty from VU 84 8.82Other external faculty 43 6.59Support staff 13 10.36VU-AUC secondment 2 0.70

AUC students can study abroad at one of AUC’s 23 partner institutions spread over six different continents. Furthermore, all AUC students who meet the requirements to study abroad have access to another 45 UvA Global Exchange partner institutions and a broad range of various VU partner institutions in Europe and Brazil.

The map above displays AUC’s partner universities (red), AUC’s quota partner institutions (black) and the UvA Global Exchange destinations that are open to AUC students (white).

Autumn 2013 Spring 2013Outgoing 41 18Incoming 37 24

Internal Evaluations

Curriculum Evaluations

Curriculum Analysis

Track Analysis

Course Evaluations

SERUSurvey

NSESurvey

GraduateSurvey Stakeholders IAB

Quality Report

Outlook &Strategy

Adjustment AS&P

CC/BoS/BOEAUCBoard

Implementation CurriculumCourse

Evaluation

Peerrereview/HoS

Courseadjustments

Course

CC/BoS

External Evaluations

AMSTERDAM SCIENCE PARK – WHO’S IN TOWNAUC is located in Amsterdam Science Park, surrounded by many institutions dedicated to science innovation and research. Top-level science research institutions, AMOLF, CWI, NIKHEF, MATRIX innovation center and SURFsara, have become AUC partners, offering opportunities to AUC students for research internships and capstone (thesis) work. Guests from the institutes also provided lectures (as part of the Who’s in Town series) and hosted joint seminars with and at AUC in 2012–2013, including: • Dr. Ivo van Vulpen (UvA/NIKHEF): Quest for the Higgs.• Prof. Dr. Albert Polman (AMOLF): Energy from the sun: dealing

with the energy crisis.• Peter Ritmeester (PZZL.com): Puzzles from Amsterdam.• Dr. Patrick Decowski & Dr. Gianfranco Bertone (UvA/GRAPPA):

Dark matter.• Dr. Sander Bohte (CWI): Deep and dynamic models of the brain:

a third attempt.• Dr. Ir. Anwar Osseyran (SURFsara): Supercomputing and Big Data

in service of science, innovation and sustainability.

AUC is not an island, but connected closely to the surrounding community in the multicultural city of Amsterdam and also to the world at large. AUC emphasises students’ personal and social responsibility both inside and outside the classroom. Extra efforts have been directed at promoting the participation in community projects, led by a Community Project coordinator. A new Diversity Coordinator has been appointed to further strengthen the diversity agenda of AUC. Outreach activities have included projects in the neighbourhood of AUC with our partner schools, such as offering master classes to secondary school students. In June, AUC’s Think Tank on the ‘Zesjescultuur’ involving Dutch secondary school students presented solutions for this phenomenon under the auspices of six AUC students.

Outreach and civic engagement

OUTGOING STUDENTSIn general, about one-third of the AUC students study abroad for a semester.In 2013, 59 students studied a full semester abroad, choosing to study at 32 different partner institutions and two free-mover destinations. Of the 59 students, 11 students opted for an Erasmus exchange within Europe. The three most popular destination countries were Canada (14 students), United States (9) and Hong Kong SAR (7). The most popular partner institution was McGill University, which hosted half of the AUC students who went to Canada in 2013.

INCOMING STUDENTSIn 2013, AUC hosted 61 incoming exchange students with 22 different nationalities representing 31 partner universities. The top three sending institutions were National University of Singapore (6 students), Quest University Canada (5) and University of Melbourne (4). The most represented nationalities were American (11 students), Australian (7) and Singaporean (7).

NEW DESTINATIONSIn 2013 three new AUC partnerships were initiated: • University College Freiburg, Germany• Uppsala University, Sweden• Lund University, Sweden

NETHERLANDS ASIA HONOURS SUMMER SCHOOL Different from mainstream study abroad experiences, the Netherlands Asia Honours Summer School (NAHSS) offers a study abroad experience that is strongly intertwined with the corporate sector. In 2013, three AUC students took part in a programme that included attendance at a summer school in Hong Kong or Taiwan, working on a project, and conducting business visits to Dutch companies and entrepreneurs such as AkzoNobel, DSM and Philips during a business week in Shanghai.

COMMUNITY PROJECTS & INTERNSHIPSAs part of their curriculum, all AUC students complete an internship or community project. Students participate in local, national or international volunteer projects or organisations. In academic year 2012–2013, 168 students successfully completed their projects.

2012–2013Community projects 50Internships, research-based 37Internships, work-based 81

FIRST ANNUAL VOLUNTEER WEEKIn March 2013, the Hands On committee of the AUC Student Association (AUCSA) organised a week-long series of events to promote community service and volunteering. This year’s theme was food and sustainability. The students raised money for this year’s charity: The Food Bank.

PHOTOGRAPHYAUC, Peter Lowie, Studio VU/Peter Gerritsen, David van Dam,

Caroline Holleman, Marijk van der Wende

MOVEMBERMovember was started by 30 gentlemen in Australia. who used their creativity and hairiness to grow moustaches for a month to encourage discussions about men’s health and raise money. A number of strapping gentlemen among the AUC students and staff participated in Movember 2013, raising money for prostate cancer research at VU University Amsterdam Medical Centre (VUmc).