ECHO Awards

ECHO Awards 2025 - Frequently Asked Questions

• What are the award categories?

  The ECHO Awards can be divided into several categories. Each category has its own award:

  • HBO Award - for students in higher vocational education;
  • WO Award - for students in academic education;
  • Topicality Award - for students in HBO and/or WO who contribute to current social developments, regardless of their field of study.*

  The VU may nominate students for the WO Award and the Topicality Award. An educational institution may nominate 3 students per category. In total, the VU may therefore nominate a maximum of 6 students.

  *Explanation: when students explicitly focus their work on urgent social issues that are not specific to one particular educational sector, they may be eligible for the ECHO Topicality Award.

• What are the criteria and conditions?

  General criteria

  • Social impact: make demonstrable contributions that lead to positive changes, both inside and outside the educational institution, on socially relevant themes.
  • Policy and systemic change: be involved in initiatives focusing on policy and/or systemic issues to address structural inequalities and demonstrate a clear vision and strategy in this regard.
  • Leadership qualities: demonstrate inspirational leadership and the ability to mobilise and motivate others in processes of social change.

  Practical criteria

  • The student is part of an underrepresented group, with a specific focus on Dutch students with a non-western or refugee background;
  • The student has above-average study performance (guideline: average of 7.5 or higher);
  • The student has an excellent command of the English language;
  • The student is available for the ECHO Ambassadors Academy taking place on 6 September 2025;
  • The student is available for an interview with the ECHO Award jury;
  • The student is available to attend the ECHO Award 2025 presentation ceremony on a date to be determined in December 2025.

• How do I enter the 2025 ECHO Awards?

  Because a limited number of students may be nominated for the ECHO Awards, we work with a VU-wide preselection round. Each faculty may nominate 2 candidates for this VU-wide preselection round. If there are more candidates, the faculties decide which 2 candidates they will put forward for the VU-wide preselection round.

  Please note: nominations submitted outside the faculties for the VU-wide selection round will not be considered by the jury.

  It is therefore important that interested students register with their faculty, so that the faculty can take stock of how many students want to be nominated and whether a selection should take place within the faculty. How the selection is made is at the faculty's discretion. Ask your faculty about the internal procedure.

  When nominating for the VU-wide internal preselection round, faculties and students must provide the following documents:

  • Fully completed nomination form (Note: the form must be completed by the faculty contact person nominating the student, e.g. a lecturer, programme director, faculty director or policy officer. Students should not fill in this form themselves!).
  • A personal motivation from the nominated student, in the form of a letter or video (see guidelines for motivation ECHO).
  • A resumé from the nominated student (max. 2 pages).

  The nomination form and 2025 motivation guidelines can be found on the ECHO foundation website: https://echo-net.nl/echo-award/voordrachtsprocedure/

• What is the schedule and deadline for the VU-wide internal selection process?

  The deadline for faculty to submit nominations closes at 23:59 on Friday 6 June 2025. In mid-June, the jury will discuss the submitted nominations. If the jury deems it necessary, a round of interviews will follow shortly afterwards, after which the results will be announced. In the third week of June, the Education Awards secretary will draft a nomination letter on behalf of VU and submit it to the Executive Board for approval. After approval by the CvB, the secretary will submit the complete nomination to ECHO no later than 27 June.

• Where and to whom should I report if I want to participate?

  Report to your faculty or school. Below is a list of contacts by faculty and school:

  • Dentistry: Oriana van der Sande-Semenciuc at o.c.van.der.sande-semenciuc@acta.nl
  • Science: onderwijsbeleid.beta@vu.nl
  • Behavioural and Movement Sciences: onderwijsevaluaties.fgb@vu.nl
  • Medicine: Inge van Wijk at ij.vanwijk@amsterdamumc.nl
  • Law: onderwijsbureau.rch@vu.nl
  • Business and Economics: Karlijn Snel via k.snel@vu.nl
  • Humanities: onderwijsbureau.fgw@vu.nl
  • Religion and Theology: onderwijsbureau.frt@vu.nl
  • Social Sciences: Dieneke van der Meulen via b.g.vander.meulen@vu.nl

• What happens after nomination by VU to ECHO?

  • Upon nomination by VU to ECHO, candidates automatically join the ECHO Ambassadors community, a network of socially engaged students and (young) professionals who have been nominated over the years. All nominated candidates are invited to participate in the ECHO Ambassadors Academy, a leadership programme that prepares candidates for their role as ECHO Ambassadors.
  • Nominated candidates also go through a selection process at ECHO. ECHO shortlists finalists for each Award category. Finalists are expected to make a presentation to the ECHO jury. The finalists (and the public) will hear who the winners are at the award ceremony (expected on 4 December 2025).
  • The winners will be rewarded with an all-expenses-paid summer course at UCLA in the United States in 2026 (Summer course is subject to change. If attendind the summer course is not possible, a fitting alternative will be sought in consultation with the winners).

• What about nominations from the former faculties of Religion and Theology, Humanities and Social Sciences?

  The former faculties of Religion and Theology, Humanities and Social Sciences very recently merged into 1 faculty - the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities. The former faculties have since existed as schools within FSH.

  As the practical integration and alignment between the schools is still ongoing, for this edition of the ECHO Awards, the schools may still each submit separate nominations for the VU-wide preselection round. The schools of RT, HUM and SS are thus allowed to nominate 2 students each. For the next edition of 2026, FSH will be asked for a joint faculty nomination.

• Can international students also be nominated?

  Yes, under conditions. For international students, they are only eligible if they:

  • Identify themselves as part of a marginalised community in their own context;
  • Intend to settle in the Netherlands;
  • Have made a social contribution to Dutch society.

• What definition does ECHO use for non-Western background?

  ECHO uses the following definition for non-Western: Person whose migration background is one of the countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia (including Indonesia and Japan) or Turkey.

• Need more information or help?

  For more general information about the ECHO Awards, please visit the ECHO website: https://echo-net.nl/echoaward/
  
  Do you have any questions about the VU-wide preselection procedure? If so, please contact Kristel Struiksma, secretary Education Awards, at: k.struiksma@vu.nl

Maybe you were looking for this as well?