Start of the Academic Year 2025-2026

The annual celebration of the start of the academic year of Utrecht University will take place at 1 September 2025.

Watch the recording

Speeches

• Speech Anton Pijpers (pdf)
• Speech Floor Haalboom (pdf)
• Speech Lidwien Smit (pdf)
• Speech Wilco Hazeleger (pdf)

Healthy Planet

This year's Start of the Academic Year focuses on the Year Theme 2025: Healthy Planet. Our health is closely linked to the health of animals, plants and ecosystems. A healthy planet requires a planetary health approach, in which humans, animals, and nature live together in balance.
 
During the celebration, Anton Pijpers will open the programme. Keynote speakers are Floor Haalboom and Lidwien Smit, both ambassadors of collaboration with other disciplines and researchers in the field of Planetary Health. As a historian of science and medicine, Floor Haalboom specializes in modern environmental history. Lidwien Smit is Professor of One Health and Environmental Epidemiology. Her research focuses on the intersections of human, animal, and environmental health. Together, they address the question of what we, as the UU community, need to do in order to take responsibility for future generations, to whom we will pass on the Earth.

Margot van der Starre will announce the winners of the Student Awards: one for Best Master's Thesis, the Vliegenthart Thesis Award, and the Award for Social Impact. The nominees have been announced in mid-July.

A closing reflection will be provided by Wilco Hazeleger.