Rinnooy Kan (SER) and Van der Feltz (Google) to open academic year of Faculty of Economics and Business in Groningen

On Thursday 8 September, SER ( Social and Economic Council) chairman Alexander Rinnooy Kan and Google director Pim van der Feltz will open the new academic year of the Faculty of Economics and Business. In addition to these two ‘leadership panels’ and debates, four awards will be presented: lecturer of the year, freshman of the year, best newcomer, and the FEB-EBF thesis award. A Start of the Year market for charity will close the festive opening. The event will take place in room 0015 of the Kapteynborg (building J) on the Zernike complex and starts at 15:30 hours. Language of communication will be English.

The opening is extra festive this year, since AACSB awarded the faculty its prestigious accreditation this summer.FEB is now among the global top 5% of business schools.

Opening theme

‘Universities and the knowledge-based economy’ is the central theme this year of the opening celebrated by students, staff and guests of the Faculty of Economics and Business. The faculty organises this event together with the students of the faculty association EBF. Chairman will be Wilfred Dolfsma, professor of strategy and innovation. In his weblog he anticipates on the theme: ‘Demanding universities to mind short-term economic and business goals is not the solution;the university’s added value lies in serving the country and the economy in the long term’.

Awards

For the election of Lecturer of the Year, every academic year the teachers with the highest scores on their evaluations are nominated by students. A jury eventually chooses the winner. The FEB-EBF Thesis Award will go to the best Master’s thesis of the past academic year. FEB encourages its students to achieve the best possible results in their studies and therefore awards the Freshman of the Year Award to the best first-year student. After every semester, the freshmen rankings publish (by student number) the results of all first-year students and compare them to those of their fellow students in the same programme. The overall winner is chosen from the best students of all bachelor programmes and he/she will receive the Freshman of the Year Award.

Leadership Panels

The central lectures of this year’s opening of the faculty’s academic year are held by Alexander Rinnooy Kan en Pim van der Feltz and elaborate on the theme ‘Universities and the knowledge-based economy’. Van der Feltz is alumnus in general economics of the Faculty, and director of Google Netherlands since 2008. Rinnooy Kan is chairman of the Social and Economic Council (SER). In 2007, 2008 and 2009 he was declared as most influential Dutch person.

Market

After the opening programme, a Start of the Year market will take place, with products, games, food&drinks and an auction. The revenues will be divided among two charity organizations, KIKA for children with cancer ( kika.nl ) and the Erik Bleumink Fund that awards scholarships to talented students and young researchers from developing countries.

For the programme and more information about the Opening of the FEB-EBF Academic year:
> www.rug.nl/feb/academicyear