OUR INITIATIVES

Without VeSte, there would not be ...

Library opening hours

On initiative of VeSte, the library opening hours during the weekends between the self-study and exam week were extended. The library now opens one hour earlier and closes one hour later. Seeing how busy it already is during these hours, this was a welcome change.

Microwaves

VeSte was co-involved in the appearance of microwaves on the ground floor on Forum. Now there is more opportunity to warm up your own meal!

Career centre

The Career Centre was initiated by two VeSte members in the academic year 2014-2015, to help students with career orientation and to support students who are looking for a job. Nowadays, the Student Career Services are realised and running well.

Sustainability Fund

Investments in sustainability can be quite a big part of a budget of a student organisation. Therefore, VeSte proposed setting up the Sustainability Fund, a fund that should make investing in sustainability easier and more accessible for student organisations related to WUR. Student organisations can apply for this fund and receive financial support for investing in more sustainable options. Next to giving an opportunity to these organisation to become more sustainable, VeSte also strives create more awareness among the members of the association with this fund.

Studying Without Limitations

VeSte initiated Studying without limitations, which is a platform that offers support for students at Wageningen University. There is a buddy-to-buddy system to help students with daily problems that arise from their limitations. The platform will be for students, by students, in the form of peer coaching, but student deans will be involved as well. It will be accessible for students who encounter cognitive disabilities, psychological disabilities, chronic illness, physical limitations, and auditory and visual impairments. The platform not only facilitates students in their day-to-day life, but also lowers the threshold for students to seek contact with the student deans or other professionals involved in the university, and shortens lines of communication.

Sustainable traveling

VeSte initiated the idea to promote more sustainable traveling for students by train and bus instead of flying. The university sometimes offers reimbursement for travel costs when these are necessary for your study. This is, for example, stipulated in the Vaccination and Travel Funding Regulations. This year, VeSte arranged within these regulations that students can receive a refund of 100% of the costs when they travel in a sustainable way, opposite to a refund of 75% when choosing to take an airplane.

Reviewing digital exams

In the past, it was sometimes impossible to review a digital examination days after the exam; students had to check their exam right after completing it. Moreover, only a supervisor and not a teacher would be present to answer questions. According to the Education and Examination Regulations it was allowed for teachers to work in this way. VeSte therefore initiated to change the regulations and make it possible for students to review their digital exam after the grade is put into the Student Information System. This change was accepted by the university and can be found back in the Education and Examination Regulations 2019-2020.

RSI/CANS Prevention

VeSte has organised an event about RSI/CANS prevention. Click here to watch the event.

Student Civil Servant

VeSte initiated the Student Civil Servant at the municipality of Wageningen. The job of this student is to form a better connection between the municipality and the students of Wageningen. The Student Civil Servant will thereby serve the interests of students and the municipality.

Mandatory answer model

To prevent that different teachers grade students in a different way, VeSte initiated to make it mandatory for courses with written exams to have an answer model for the exam available. These answer models are also asked to made available at exam checking moments for students. The initiative is taken up by the Student Charter committee of the Student Council and is still under discussion with different stakeholders.

Functional limitations

When a student has functional limitations and therefore needs for example more time for an exam, a student needs to request this at every single course, can be quite laborious. Therefore, VeSte created an initiative where the requirements due to functional limitations are digitalised on the new DLO ('Digitale LeerOmgeving').

Digital Failures

It is crucial that digital facilities are always operational and that a protocol is swiftly implementable in case of digital malfunctions, especially for when students cannot access their learning materials during self-study and examination periods. VeSte has initiated the creation of such a protocol in collaboration with the Education and Student Affairs (ESA) department, to ensure solutions for students when digital failures occur.

WUR Goes Abroad

In 2017, the website VeSte Goes Abroad was launched. This platform allows students to use an interactive global map in which information about the city, university and general local lifestyle options are provided. This is based on the experiences of students and aims to support and improve the decision-making process for students to go abroad. Nowadays, the website is taken over and maintained by WUR and is called 'WUR Goes Abroad'.

Course guides

VeSte initiated to have more structured course guides, so that students can easily find what they have to know for their course. Because of the implementation of the new Student Information System (SIS), the university is looking into the course guides. VeSte members gave input on what the course guide should look like and aims to standardize course guides between all courses.

Social Road Map

In March 2021, the Social Road Map of WUR was published. The Road Map is an overview of the different facilities WUR offers and what they are. The Where To Go To poster made by VeSte in 2020 (can be found on Social Media) has inspired the WUR to develop a complete overview of the wellbeing structure at WUR.

“Innovation is seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.” –Dr. Albert, Szent- Györgyi