Central Diversity Office

The Diversity Document sets out various objectives. Measures to achieve these include the deployment of Diversity Officers.

Central Diversity Officer and Faculty Diversity Officers

In 2017, the Executive Board appointed a Central Diversity Officer (CDO) and team. Our Central Diversity Officer is Machiel Keestra, who took up the post in February 2022. Each faculty also has its own Diversity Officer (Faculty Diversity Officer, FDO).

Get to know Machiel KeestraExternal link 

Learn more about who the Faculty Diversity Officers areExternal link

Learn more about the Faculty Diversity Officers at your faculty

Initiatives to promote diversity and inclusion

The role of Diversity Officer includes a range of responsibilities, such as identifying, promoting, creating and implementing initiatives in and outside of the UvA. Examples include mentoring programmes. And did you know the CDO also has a Grassroots Fund? The fund makes one-off grants available to students with an idea to promote equality, diversity and inclusion. Because we believe it takes all of us to create a university that is accessible for everyone.

Learn more about the Grassroots Fund hereExternal link

Liaison with councils, networks and communities

Each and every one of us is needed and each and every one of us counts. That is why the CDO liaises closely with the Central Student Council, the Central Works Council and various networks and communities. The CDO also maintains close contacts with a number of external networks and partners, including the National Diversity Officers Consultative Committee (Landelijk Overleg Diversity Officers, LanDO), the League of European Research Universities (LERU) External linkand the national expertise centre for diversity policy ECHOExternal link. 

Other responsibilities of Diversity Officers

Other responsibilities of Diversity Officers include:

• proposing and supporting concrete measures and steps for research institutes and Graduate Schools;
• driving the cultural change process required to tackle specific issues;
• keeping board members, their units and the institution as a whole up to speed regarding these issues;
• acting as an expert within the institution and providing advice on diversity and inclusion.

The Central Diversity Officer is not responsible for policymaking, nor are the Faculty Diversity Officers. Responsibility for the implementation and execution of the measures is retained by the Executive Board and the deans.

More information

Want to know more about our Diversity Officers? Places offering more information include the 2022 CDO MagazineExternal link.

Last but not least, we also want to offer staff and students a safe space to express their thoughts on the topic of diversity. You can get in touch via diversity@uva.nlExternal link at any time and you can remain anonymous if you wish.