Marcel van Aken reappointed as Dean of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
The Executive Board has reappointed Professor Marcel van Aken as Dean of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences with effect from 1 September 2022. Marcel van Aken has served as Dean of the faculty since 2017.
President of the Executive Board Anton Pijpers is pleased that Van Aken is willing to continue to serve as Dean until his retirement in 2025: ‘The Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences plays a key role in our university and in society, and Marcel is very good at creating connections, also with other faculties and partners. That is also what I heard when I visited the departments and in talking with the Faculty Council. His leadership was unanimously praised. Marcel brings people together, working on his faculty’s future by focusing on his core job and staying the course.’
We are now in a phase where we can appoint many new people and really improve our education and research. Including by increasing (interdisciplinary) collaboration within and with parties outside of the faculty.
Special period
Marcel van Aken looks back on a remarkable first term of office as Dean: ‘The past five years included two and a half years in which we struggled with the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic. That was a hectic period full of unforeseen challenges. I saw how big the impact was on our colleagues, but I also saw how well the faculty continued to function. Not only did the people at central places in the organisation respond really well to the challenging circumstances, but everyone in the faculty was willing to share ideas and demonstrated huge flexibility. Based on that experience, I am very happy to continue as Dean for another three years.’ Marcel van Aken also looks forward to serving as Dean in a period without crisis management: ‘With the funding under the Workload Reduction Stimulus scheme and the expected funding under the sector plans, we are now in a phase where we can appoint many new people and really improve our education and research. Including by increasing (interdisciplinary) collaboration within and with parties outside of the faculty, in the area of education and research as well as social impact.’
About Marcel van Aken
Marcel van Aken (1958) started his career at Radboud University Nijmegen. Having studied Developmental Psychology, he attained a PhD in this field in 1991 with a thesis on the development of competence. In 1990, he accepted a post-doc position at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Munich, Germany, where he researched the development of personality and social relationships in children. He then returned to the Netherlands to work as an assistant and later associate professor at Radboud University Nijmegen. In 2001, Marcel van Aken joined Utrecht University as Professor of Pedagogy. He was subsequently appointed Professor of Developmental Psychology. In 2014, he joined the Faculty Board as Vice Dean and Director of the Graduate School of Social and Behavioural Sciences.