Summer school personnel

Get to know the people responsible for VU Amsterdam Summer School and how we ensure its high standards

The team at VU Amsterdam Summer School work tirelessly to ensure we provide the best experience for our students. We do this in line with the values of Vrije Universiteit: to stand for scientific and value-driven education, research and knowledge transfer, to encourage sustainable growth, and to have a positive impact on society.

Part of our job is to make your experience here as enjoyable as possible and to make sure you have all the information you need to make an informed decision about your education. We’re here to answer any questions you may have before, during, or even after the programme, so don’t hesitate to reach out to us.

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Meike Morren

Meike Morren is an Assistant Professor in Marketing at VU since 2012, after she obtained her PhD in Method and Statistics from Tilburg University. Her research evolves around sustainability issues in which she likes to use advanced modelling approaches to discover patterns in environmentally friendly behaviour. Recently, she has synthesized survey findings in cross-cultural meta-analysis, and conducted an intervention on food choices. At the moment, she applies Natural Language Processing methods to analyse text data.
Gabriel Peralta Alvarez

Education specialist at the Centre for Teaching & Learning.
Dr. Sanchayan Banerjee

Dr. Sanchayan Banerjee is an Assistant Professor of Environmental and Behavioural Economics at the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM) in VU Amsterdam. Sanchayan obtained his MS and PhD from the London School of Economics and teaches in areas of environmental economics, applied quantitative methods and behavioural science and public policy. He is a fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy.

Role

The Certificate Board assesses courses and handles extraordinary cases including student complaints, exam fraud, and is called upon in case assessment re-evaluation is necessary. It also analyses data from evaluation surveys completed by students.
Members
- André Ran (Chair): on behalf of the exam board (former member)
- Wouter ten Have: on behalf of Raad van Toezicht

Yota

Summer & Winter School Coordinator
Yota (or Panagiota) Christidou (she/her) has been the Coordinator of the VU Amsterdam Summer School since January 2024. Originally from Greece, but calling the Netherlands home ever since 2018, when she moved for her MA studies in History, specialising in politics, cultural transfer, national and gender identities.
As an international student, Yota remained active in leading initiatives to improve the international student experience, the well-being of internationals and foster a stronger student community.
In her professional tracks, Yota has always being involved in higher-education, student affairs, plus event & branding management. As coordinator, she aims to continue offering via the VU Amsterdam Summer School a high-level selection of intense and innovative summer courses that promote VU's values, while elevating the study abroad experience in Amsterdam for an increasingly diverse group of curious participants.
Esther

Summer & Winter School Officer
Esther Fris joined the summer school team at VU Amsterdam as an international officer in 2024. She started working in international education in graduate school and holds a Master of Science in Sociology from the University of Amsterdam and a Bachelor of Arts in American Studies from the University of Groningen.
Rüya

Summer & Winter School Officer
Rüya came to the Netherlands in 2018 as an international student. She has a Political Science BSc (University of Amsterdam) and an International Relations MA (Leiden University). Her experiences include organizing the UNISCA summer course, leading student entrepreneurship programmes and working as a Community Manager in an education technology non-profit. Now she’s part of the Summer School team!
Mark

Digital Marketer
Mark is an international digital marketer with many years of experience working in digital, primarily as a web analyst. Tech-savvy and curious, he now works in the International Office at VU Amsterdam.