By Hazal Karaagac The iconic motto of AUC, “Excellence and Diversity in a Global City”, has recently been lifted. Its absence on the AUC website is currently filled with “Studying liberal arts and sciences in a global city” as a mere replacement phrase. Behind this change was the agenda of the AUCNext initiative. The Herring…

By Anna Debeye In 2021, the Jonge Akademie, a platform of young scholars, released a report describing how teachers and students in the Netherlands are unhappy with the current structure and length of the academic year. The Minister of Education, Robbert Dijkgraaf, has therefore asked Dutch universities to design a ‘smarter academic year’ in order…

By Lenka Simsic Hidden away in a dorm room lies a guitar workshop. A normal study desk nearly fits next to the wooden workbench. Not book shelves but hammers and saws hang on the wall. Showing me around her home with a timid smile, is Anna Cermelli, a second-year sciences student and luthier. Luthiery, the…

By Franciszek Dziduch Javastraat. Where do I begin? What can I write about the street located in the heart of Amsterdam Oost that will elucidate how special and unique it is? After all,  an entire book was written about Javastraat and a person spent 365 days without leaving it, making vlogs about the street everyday….

By Lisa Jesudas and Ben Kiem Please refresh the browser to read the most recent blog entries. 21:24 – The live blog is now closed. We hope you enjoyed keeping up with the UCSRN events and wish you a good weekend. 21:23 – Students begin shuffling out of the gym. Some are going to rest…

By Levin Stamm Doing paperwork feels like any other job to her. AUC third-year Science major Milus Tóth has spent hundreds of hours operating within the intricate mills of Dutch bureaucracy. All with one goal: to get the thousands of euros of financial aid she is entitled to under legislation of the European Union (EU)….

By Pola Folwarczny In recent years, there have not been enough candidates for AUC to hold elections for its Student Council, a participatory governing body of the university. This year, however, six determined and enthusiastic candidates are running to become the new representatives of the student body in the 2023-2024 academic year. Students will be…

By Ben Kiem The self-checkout – the reification of one person’s fears and the other’s dreams – has replaced much of the traditional cash register and reshaped the way we buy our groceries. On its conquest of the retail world, it has increased revenue, efficiency… and shoplifting. It also found its way into our local…

By Kama Wojtuszko Have you ever seen someone hump a birthday cake in a club? If you ask me about one of the most life-changing experiences, my answer would be the first Play Party, a queer event organised by Fite Qlub in Club Church. At its very beginning, my friends and I headed to the…

By Lenka Simsic On the bike ride home from dropping his son off at school on 19 January in his hometown Castricum, Lucas Winnips, an Extinction Rebellion (XR) activist, was cornered and handcuffed by undercover police in front of his son’s classmate and other children. His wife, Rosanne Rootert, called it an “intentional and intimidating…

By Violet Domínguez Is the lesbian scene in Amsterdam dying? Despite the city priding itself as the LGBTQ+ capital, lesbians and queer women continuously describe Amsterdam’s queer scene as male-dominated, as well as lacking in spaces for them. The closure of various lesbian bars such as Sappho and Bordó in 2010 and 2014 respectively, only…

By Adesholla Bishop and Lisa Jesudas “You’re here! You’re actually here!” An unfamiliar first-year student approached Lauren* with these exuberant words when Lauren was a third-year Social Science major. The younger girl had seen a picture of Lauren’s beaming profile on the AUC website, and was thrilled to recognise her in-person.  Lauren, who still recalls…

By Franciszek Dziduch Collage by Veronika Bejczy After two years of holding the class online, this year’s AUC students taking Peace Lab in the January intensive, for the first time went to Rwanda. The trip was preceded by a week of four-hour classes, during which students received an in-depth preparative education about the history of…

By Ben Kiem Paco Crofts, a third-year Humanities major, sits in the living room of his 4-person dorm room, wearing a purple knit pullover and a pair of green, flared trousers. It is a late Thursday evening. As he receives a push-notification on his phone reminding him to pick up a Balenciaga jacket he bought…