Photo Shutterstock Janneke Remmers, Mariken de Wit, Lotte Yanore and Harro Jongen are standing for election. They talked to Resource about what they will argue for if they are elected to the WUR Council.
Janneke
Janneke Remmers, a PhD student at Hydrology and Quantitative Water Management particularly wants to represent the PhD student’s angle in the discussion about the distribution of workstations at the university. ‘I’m in an office with six desks for PhD students and that’s fine by me, although I have never worked there with more than two others at the same time. But I don’t think we should impose one or two days of working from home on PhD students. I like working on campus because it provides more structure for my research and collaboration. PhD students should decide for themselves how they want to work.’
Mariken
Mariken de Wit, a PhD student at Quantitative Veterinary Epidemiology, wants to see more links between the Science Groups. ‘Meaning more horizontal collaboration on the research. I work on infectious animal diseases, but PhD students in other Science Groups are working on infectious diseases too. I want there to be topic-based centres at the university, in which both PhD students and teachers can collaborate.’
Lotte
Lotte Yanore, a PhD student at Business Economics, has a lot of contact with international PhD students working in Wageningen. She notices that these PhD students have trouble finding housing in Wageningen. Many are also facing delays, partly due to the Covid-19 epidemic. She wants to improve the position of international PhD students.
Harro
And Harro Jongen, a PhD student at both Hydrology and Quantitative Water Management and Meteorology and Air Quality, wants to keep the delays to research caused by the Covid-19 restrictions on the agenda. ‘Nearly everyone is affected by delays, whereas the majority of the PhD students are not getting any compensation for it. For me the main issue is not extra money, but the lack of understanding by the board that the Covid-19 crisis is affecting our work and our ability to deliver in the same way.’
All four candidates are going to make a short video to introduce themselves and their action points. Wageningen PhD students can vote online between 1 and 8 June to decide which two PhD students will represent them on the WUR Council. There is more information on the intranet.
