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UvA to introduce extra holiday week from next academic year

1 October 2019

Starting from the 2020-2021 academic year, an additional teaching-free week (holiday week) will be introduced in all the faculties of the University of Amsterdam. The Executive Board took the official decision on Tuesday, 24 September. The week will coincide with the school holidays in the North region at the end of April / beginning of May of each year. The move comes from a broadly supported wish, including from the Central Student Council (CSR), for an extra holiday week to give students and lecturers a moment of rest in the second semester.

During the holiday week, there will be no teaching or testing, including no resits. The week can be used for extracurricular activities on a voluntary basis, such as study trips organised by study associations. The UvA’s buildings will be open at the usual times during this week.

The holiday week is planned in the fifth study period, which runs from the beginning of April to the end of May. Various options were explored and presented to the University Committee on Education (UCO) among others. In the end the decision was made to select a week linked to the school holidays in the North region. In the 2020-2021 academic year, the holiday week is planned from 3 to 7 May 2021.

CSR chair Pjotr van der Jagt is enthusiastic about the decision: ‘We are very happy to see that our wish for the holiday week has been granted after intensive cooperation.’