Cisca Wijmenga will not be available for a second term as UG rector. She will leave the position in September of 2023.
The university announced the news on Monday. ‘Due to personal circumstances, I’ve made the difficult decision to not be available for a second term as rector magnificus at this wonderful university’, Wijmenga writes. She will continue to do her job ‘with great effort and commitment’ until September.
Wijmenga is the university’s first female rector. Together with Houke de Vries and Hans Biemans, she forms the current board of directors. She is in charge of the education and research portfolio. According to board president De Vries, Wijmenga ‘has shown great decisiveness in implementing several important changes in the fields of teaching and research in a short space of time’.
Driving force
According to Johan Remkes, president of the Supervisory Board of the university, called Wijmenga the ‘driving force’ behind many new initiatives. He named several examples, such as the Aletta Jacobs chairs, aimed at increasing the number of female professors, the UG Support plan, a financial plan that seeks to limit the effects of the Covid pandemic on education and research, and the Teaching Academy Groningen.
Remkes said he respects Wijmenga’s choice on behalf of the board and is happy that she’ll continue her job with ‘unabated effort’. Biemans and De Vries both found it ‘unfortunate, and at the same time understandable’ that the rector is leaving. According to them, she fulfilled the university’s representative duties ‘with fervour and style’.