Social safety is a broad concept, ranging from a strong culture in which people can hold others accountable, to transparent, accessible complaints procedures and the establishment of clear boundaries for conduct. Overstepping these boundaries is never acceptable. Students and staff must have a means at their disposal to raise concerns, dilemmas and complaints at the University. They must feel safe in doing so, and have confidence that their report or complaint will be taken seriously.

The (recent) past shows that improvements are required. The Executive Board is fully focused on responding effectively to reports and complaints. Consequently, we are making great strides with various actions already under way. These are outlined below.

The Social Safety Memo (December 2021) contains an overview of the current state of affairs concerning social safety initiatives in 2021, as well as the actions that will be taken from 2022.

Strengthening social safety is a constant concern and focuses on information and awareness, help and support and the system of reports and complaints. Over the past two years, we have considered and improved our system and procedures for reports and complaints of undesirable behaviour (see information on new regulations below). In doing so, we also make use of the recommendations of the External Committee on Social Safety and the Taskforce on Social Safety, the Participation Council, the Senate, the Chief Diversity Office (CDO) and various other bodies.

Examples of actions:

• A new code of conduct has been drawn up.
• An external reporting point for undesirable behaviour has been set up.
• We have made information on social safety more readily available, including the support guide for students and the support guide for employees.
• The complaints procedure has been made more suitable for complaints about social safety.
• The position of ombudsperson has been permanently established.
• The regulations for confidential counsellors have been revised and adapted.

New regulations on ombudsperson, confidential advisers and complaints (November 2021)

New regulations have recently been adopted for the ombudsperson, the confidential advisers for undesirable behaviour and the complaints procedure. 

New regulations regarding ombudsperson

Every (former) staff member or (former) student can contact the ombudsperson. The ombudsperson advises, mediates, investigates, adjudicates and/or refers. The ombudsperson also has an important role in signalling developments and patterns within the school and organises regular consultations between relevant actors in the field of social safety. The ombudsperson has the authority to gather information within the organisation. As of 6 September 2021, Samera Ouchene is the ombudsperson. Read more about the ombudsperson.

New regulations regarding confidential advisers for undesirable behaviour

On 1 April, Arjen Berkvens started as coordinating confidential counsellor at UVA. In this new position he will act as a sparring partner for the other advisers, coordinate the activities of the internal network of advisers, ensure the independent positioning of the advisers in the faculties and central units and monitor the workload of each counsellor.

New Complaints Regulations

It was already possible to submit complaints, but the period for complaints regarding undesirable behaviour has been extended to three years in the new complaints regulation. The regulation has also been improved, based on experiences in recent years. For example, the Committee can be expanded with an expert on the subject of the complaint. It is also possible  to submit a complaint confidentially (via the confidential adviser). More attention is also being paid to aftercare. With regard to the definition of undesirable behaviour, reference is made to the University of Amsterdam's code of conduct.

Lucienne Kelfkens was appointed from September 2020 to December 2021 to coordinate activities aimed at strengthening social safety at the UvA.

On the one hand, the focus was on improvements to our system and our procedures for dealing with reports and complaints of undesirable behaviour. In addition, more emphasis was placed on prevention and awareness. Social safety is a broad concept, ranging from an ethical culture in which problems can be discussed, to transparent and accessible complaints procedures and the setting of clear boundaries for behaviour. In addition to good procedures, recognizing, discussing and preventing undesirable behaviour is essential. That is why work is also being done on a study and work environment in which we hold each other accountable for behaviour and managers are equipped to respond adequately to signals.

The overview memorandum describes the spearheads and actions for 2021. In doing so, we made use of recommendations from studies and reports, such as those from the Social Security Task Force and from the external committee.
 

A Social Safety Taskforce was set up for the period spanning July 2019 to the end of 2020 and was tasked with advising and working on increasing the social safety of staff and students.  It completed its task resulting in a report with recommendations.

Read more about the Taskforce

The external committee that examined, on behalf of the Executive Board, the UvA’s system of reports and complaints relating to social safety, has issued its report. The independent committee has provided recommendations for ways in which the current system of social safety can be improved.

The UvA has a code of conduct for all UvA staff and students. We have also drawn up a statement on social safety together with the other Dutch universities. ead the code of conduct, house rules and the VSNU statement below.