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Acting Sustainable
Diversity & Inclusion

Diversity & Inclusion

We wish to be an inclusive and accessible university of applied sciences and we want to make sure that every student and staff member feels at home. 

Within the HU, we are working together to build an inclusive university where all students and staff, regardless of their gender, ethnicity, religion, age, skin colour, disability, sexual orientation and socio-economic background, feel at home. Students are equipped to function in an increasingly diverse labour market and society.  In 2020, the Diversity and Inclusion Working Group was established, consisting of HU staff and students. The working group, together with the Diversity Officer and the Diversity and Inclusion network, is committed to advancing diversity policies and activities within the HU. Within the HU community, the Diversity and Inclusion Working Group focuses on three themes: cultural diversity, studying and working with disabilities and LGBTQ+.

Diversity brings us new ideas
We wish to be a community, a meeting point that creates space for talent and growth, a space in which everyone feels seen and at home. We consider diversity to be a great asset. It brings us new ideas, exciting discussions, surprising perspectives and unexpected solutions. Also to our alumni the HU is a loyal partner, a source of knowledge and a home base. This is why we invest a lot of energy in setting up and contributing to alumni networks and communities.

Student welfare contributes to student success
Education is custom-made. Some students need to be challenged more to study optimally, some need extra support or adjustments. Via HU Helps , students can find all the information they need to successfully complete their study programmes, such as financial or legal assistance, support in top-level sports or peer support when studying with autism.

Read more about the HU Community ambition in our ambition plan HU in 2026

Source: HUOntwikkelt (HUDevelops)

HU Teaching & Learning Network

HU’s Teaching & Learning Network is a fact: a network in which we as professionals are given space and support to collaborate, learn and innovate. As a network, we can further develop ourselves, our education and our research.

The idea is that lecturers (teams) and researchers themselves come up with new initiatives and joint activities and, above all, contribute and share their own good initiatives and practices in the network. After all, the TLN is not a ’top down’ organisation but ‘from within’: it revolves around colleagues who help and inspire each other. Support comes, among other things, from colleagues in the TLN network team, which supports educational innovation and provides professionalisation trajectories. The network team also contributes to our new ambition plan, HU in 2026, by organising meetings around topics such as ‘What are the opportunities and possibilities of digitalisation as a catalyst? What does mission-driven education mean in daily HU practice?

The TLN network team establishes and maintains good connections with other knowledge hubs inside and outside the HU, such as the knowledge centres, research workshops, Centres of Expertise, Learning Labs and the Digital Learning Environment (DLO) team. The Knowledge Centre of the TLN is built upon the Learning and Innovation Knowledge Centre. Furthermore, the TLN is active in national networks and communities. It also maintains contact with CARPE’s Teacher-HUB, which brings educational innovation professionals from the European CARPE network together. That is how the network collects and shares new insights and knowledge, which in turn benefits HU’s education and research professionals: knowledge circulation ‘with open doors’.

Teaching & Learning Network, in cooperation with the sustainability programme team, offers guidance to lecturers who want to develop education in such a way that it contributes to the Sustainable Development Goals. In a learning team, work is demand-driven.

Click here for more information about the Teaching & Learning Network.

Source: HUOntwikkelt (HUDevelops)

Ambassadors' Network

What does the HU SDG Community Sustainable Together entail?

The HU SDG Community Sustainable Together, consists of a group of enthusiastic pioneers within the HU who (want to) make an impact. They link one or more UN objectives: Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to their education or research at the HU. These ambassadors take on a pioneering role and stimulate sustainable thinking and action among HU students and staff. Both students and staff can join the SDG Community. For more information, go to #AndWhatDoYouDo.

Training sessions and workshops

Do you go home smiling at the end of the working day? Of course things aren’t always easy, and everyone has an ‘off day’ now and again. But your work is an important part of your life. Therefore, you’d better make sure you enjoy it most of the time.

You have more influence on this than you might think. Because job satisfaction starts with your own vitality. If you make sure you charge your battery properly, you will have plenty of energy. Even when things go wrong. This will help you to go home with a smile more often.

Utrecht University offers many opportunities to boost your vitality. Check out our development portal(ontwikkelportaal.hu.nl) for the Vitality training offer. See, for example, this video  on vitality. You can also work as a team to improve team vitality. For example, do you want to stop smoking or live more mindfully? Check out the wide range of courses and training programmes in the HU development portal!

Source: AskHU and HUOntwikkelt (HUDevelops

The Legal Student Office

The Legal Student Office (Juridisch Studentenloket, JLS) is the legal advice centre of the HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht and is staffed by students alone! You can come to us with all kinds of legal questions. To ensure quality, a qualified team of lecturers checks all the advice given.

For and by students!
Apart from the fact that the advice of the JSL is drafted and given by students, management is also in the hands of students. Under the guidance and advice of a committed team of lecturers, the student board maps out and implements the course of the JSL. Besides first-line advice, the JSL informs students about their rights and obligations and, if possible, refers students to other institutions.

Go to the website via this link for more information.