‘What struck me most, is that it brought so much new energy.’ The department of political science at the University of Amsterdam consists of several programme groups that are now led by elected boards. In this new system, you don’t have to be a full professor in order to lead a programme group. Saskia is proud of this system of governance and explains how it encourages group members to be more involved in the decision-making, but also how it makes her department a more safe environment.

Saskia Bonjour is Associate Professor in Political Science at the University of Amsterdam.

In this short series, Marie-José van Tol and Sanli Faez, members of The Young Academy discuss some outstanding solutions for common issues experienced at Dutch universities with various guests. In these interviews faculty members from four universities present how a serious and common problem has been solved in their department or institute in a creative way.