Alongside light-hearted activities like the ball pit, the AID also pays more serious attention to social safety. Photo Unsplash/Hanna Morris Experimenting is part of student life, so feel free to do so. But make sure you have consent for everything you do. That, in a nutshell, is what WUR wants to impress upon the new batch of students about social safety. The Wageningen student associations will play a pivotal role in this. In addition, a study-related approach will be trialled.
In previous years, WUR educated new first-year students about social safety through, among other things, compulsory e-learning and the university initiative Social SafeTEA. The compulsory e-learning will remain, but otherwise the course will be slightly altered: student associations will play a pivotal role. ‘They know best what is going on among students,’ explains Sjef Moling, safe education advisor at the Student Service Centre.
Sounding board and ally
WUR supports the associations in this – starting with training for their confidential advisors. Furthermore, in the course of the autumn, they will be able to choose from various training courses and activities for their members, which WUR has developed in consultation with the associations. These range from a bystander workshop (‘always a hit’, says Moling) to a theatre performance or a BookTok-style reading club, with tips on books on the subject. ‘They can choose what suits them best; no two associations are the same,’ explains Moling.
Social safety is also addressed during the AID, for example through a number of games during the campus games. There is a fun group assignment in a ball pit, where the whole group is photographed. Moling: ‘A lasting memory like this can help to keep the subject fresh in people’s minds.’ There is also a serious component: in various ways, AID participants are made aware of the existence of a sounding board and ally in the fight against inappropriate behaviour, namely the WUR confidential counsellors.
Trial run
In the Bachelor’s programmes in Biotechnology and International Development Studies, a trial run is also being conducted with a programme related to the study. First-year students receive at least one activity on social safety each teaching period. Moling cites as examples a training course on non-violent communication, or the Fairspace workshop on consent and pleasure in sex. Practice will show whether this is successful. ‘And if so, we will apply this approach to all programmes in 2026,’ says Moling.
