Groningen, 6 May 2025 – While the university implements severe budget cuts, students and staff have almost no say in the matter. The Groninger Student Union (GSb) wants to change that and is fighting for more democracy and student participation through six faculty council elections. “It cannot be the case that entire fields of study disappear without students having a say in this.”
Education cuts are an eyesore for the union. According to the Groninger Studentenbond (GSb), there is hardly any opposition from within the university itself, and students and staff are insufficiently involved in the decision-making process. Karlijn Bakker, chair of the BSS faction: “Many courses and entire fields of study are being scrapped without students having any say in the matter. If sports and food on campus will soon become even more expensive, social cohesion will crumble even further. Of course, that really can’t happen.”
The union is therefore participating in the elections to make the university more democratic. It is doing this at the faculties of Behavioural and Social Sciences, Arts, Law, Spatial Sciences, Economics and Business, and Science and Engineering. According to the GSb, students and staff currently have too little influence over important decisions. “The university is run as if it were a profit-driven business,” Karlijn said. “There is more focus on recruiting new students than the duty of care for existing students. More value is placed on cooperation with external parties than the university’s own academic community.”
With their participation in elections to six faculties, the union wants to give students a chance to have a say in such sweeping decisions. They hope this will also bring peace to the university. “Many students and staff are concerned about the cuts, especially because we get so little information. We are doing something about that,” Bakker said.
With these candidacies, the GSb suddenly is the broadest student party in Groningen. The union wants to build a network of active students throughout the city to organize and structurally strengthen participation more effectively. “The great thing about faculty council is that you are so close to the community,” Bakker said.
