On Friday 13 January 2017, Father John Behr accepted the Metropolitan Kallistos Ware Chair in Orthodox Theology at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU) during a session of the College of Deans. The vice-dean of the Faculty of Theology, Prof. Eddy van der Borght, presided over the academic ceremony and first delivered the laudatio. Then Fr John accepte…

Chances are that your favourite university has a nice webpage boasting how competitive the university is in the international market. Indeed, education and research are markets. But what has changed when academia became more and more commodified, when universities commercialised and financialised? In this lecture, Hans Radder tells you all about it…

Science largely rests on the integrity of scientists and that is not always a secure foundation. For some, fraud and plagiarism are an irresitable tempation on your way to fame. In this lecture, Ruud Abma analyses the infamous case of the former psychologist Diederik Stapel and methodological problems in psychology more generally.…

If science is about facts, then scientist should be clear on their definition of what ‘facts’ are. This is what historian of science Trudy Dehue argues in this lecture.Door Bas Cornelissen

Frank Miedema is one of the initiators of Science in Transition. This movement believes that the scientific system is in need of fundamental reform. So what is wrong with this system called 'science'? How to diagnose its symptoms and what is the cure?Door Bas Cornelissen

How can you make complex scientific ideas understandable for the wider public — and for scientists themselves? In this first podcast, we turn to Bas Haring, a professor for the Public Understanding of Science at Leiden University. The crux, it seems, lies in finding the good metaphors.Door Bas Cornelissen