Ramadan was nominated by the UvA’s representative advisory bodies and, in accordance with the Higher Education and Research Act, has the ‘full support of the representative bodies’. He succeeds Edith Hooge who was unable to complete her term due to taking up a new position on 1 January 2019 as chair of the Education Council.

About Omar Ramadan

Omar Ramadan (1976) studied Political Science and Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam. At the time, he was also chair of the Jonge Socialisten, the youth wing of the Dutch Labour Party (PvdA). After completing his studies, he was the press and politics spokesperson for the Netherlands Court of Audit. Ramadan was a member of the National Convention, a government committee for administrative reform and in 2003, he commenced working as a senior consultant for RadarAdvies, a consultancy bureau for social issues. He has been the director of this bureau since 2009. He has also been the director of the Radicalisation Awareness Network Centre of Excellence (RAN CoE), an organisation where the European Commission pools its efforts to combat violent extremism. Ramadan was previously (vice)chair of the supervisory boards of the Mondriaan Regional Training Centre for Vocational Education in The Hague, the Amsterdam-based residents’ support organisation !WOON, and the Youké youth services organisation in Utrecht.

Roeland Voorbergen, president of the Central Student Council: ‘Omar Ramadan is an experienced supervisory officer with close links to the city of Amsterdam and an affinity with the representative advisory bodies. As one of these bodies, we have full confidence in his appointment and look forward to working with him.’