Now that the summer holidays are over, not only primary and secondary schools are opening again, the academic year at the universities is also starting. For most universities, the kick-off is on Monday, at the traditional opening of the academic year.
Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) has a big discussion afternoon about “technological sovereignty”. European Commissioner Thierry Breton (Internal Market), Minister Micky Adriaansens (Economic Affairs) and ASML Chairman of the Board, Peter Wennink, will be present. That company from Veldhoven makes the machines that make chips and is one of the most important companies in the world in that sector. The United States wants the Netherlands to do more to prevent ASML from selling such machines to China.
The cabinet is also represented at other universities. Minister Wopke Hoekstra (Foreign Affairs) talks about peace and security at his old university in Leiden. Robbert Dijkgraaf (Minister of Education, Culture and Science) is in Maastricht and Dennis Wiersma (Minister for Primary and Secondary Education) is speaking at the Open University in the Mauritshuis in The Hague. Karien van Gennip (Minister of Social Affairs and Employment) attends the opening of the academic year in Tilburg and talks about the future of the labor market. The opening in Groningen is about resilience in the face of setbacks and turbulent times, and there is State Secretary Maarten van Ooijen (Public Health, Welfare and Sport).
The University of Humanistics in Utrecht has invited Princess Laurentien. She talks, among other things, about the allowance affair. The princess is the founder of a foundation that assists aggrieved parents and children. Monday is also the opening of the academic year in Utrecht, Enschede, Nijmegen, Rotterdam, Delft and Wageningen, just like at the VU University in Amsterdam. The Frisian campus of the University of Groningen in Leeuwarden will kick off the academic year on Tuesday and the University of Amsterdam will do so on Thursday.