First official working week Jouke de Vries

M onday was Prof. Jouke de Vries’s first official working day as President of the Board of the University of Groningen. He will succeed Prof. Sibrand Poppema, who will be retiring from the position after ten years.

Jouke de Vries (1960) studied Political Sciences at the University of Amsterdam, specializing in public administration. In 1984 he was appointed Assistant Professor by the Public Administration department. He gained a PhD in 1989 with a thesis on land policy and cabinet crises. His supervisors were Professor Hand Daudt and Professor Hans Daalder.

In 1999 De Vries was appointed Professor of Public Administration at Leiden University. He also became the academic director and later Dean of Campus The Hague, part of Leiden University. Under his leadership, Campus The Hague developed into an internationally renowned academic centre with thousands of students. De Vries regularly publishes in Dutch and international journals. Among his most important publications are: Paars en de managementstaat and Een onderbroken evenwicht in de Nederlandse politiek (about the ‘purple’ cabinet and the revolt by Fortuyn). He was also editor of an international trilogy about budgetting issues in OECD countries. De Vries has given several important lectures, including the Thorbecke Lecture in 2005 and the Mayor Lecture in 2008. He has been a columnist for the Staatscourant and written articles for several national newspapers.

In May 2015, De Vries was appointed Professor of Governance and Public Policy at the University of Groningen. As dean of the eleventh Faculty of the UG (Campus Fryslân) in Leeuwarden, De Vries was responsible for building up the new Faculty, which in the meantime is up and running. Campus Fryslân has a PhD school, ten Master’s degree programmes and a University College.