Opening Academic Year 2024-2025: How are you doing and how are we doing?
Monday, September 2, we will usher in the new academic year in a festive way. The program of this edition is on the theme of mental health and happiness. It is a subject that is of concern to many of us, and rightly so because research suggests that there is cause for concern.
So how are you doing, really, and how are we doing? Together we will explore this seemingly simple question. Mental health and happiness are personal, but they also touch on questions about how we are doing as a society. And what role do we have as a university?
Program
In her lecture, Maureen Sie, Professor Philosophy of Moral Agency, will explore answers to these questions. She discusses the state of the art in research into mental health, not as a problem among young people, students, and overburdened colleagues, but as an issue that affects us all. In addition, she will share her thoughts on the topic of happiness. What are the conditions in which a person is or can be happy? And how does the answer to that question link up with mental health? Next, Roos Slegers will talk about this subject with, among others, Vice-Rector Magnificus Jantine Schuit, one of our university’s Confidential Advisors, the student-assessor, and an instructor.
A musical intermezzo allows us to literally feel how important music can be for our feelings of happiness. Pianist and composer Jan-Willem Rozenboom provides the music during this academic celebration. We will also present the Teacher of the Year Award and we will put a support team in the spotlight by presenting them with the Support Award.