Since September 2015, the faculty has not had a dean. ‘Henk Kiers left the position of dean after eight years’, says Rita Landeweerd, managing director of the faculty.

Vice dean Greetje van der Werf was serving as an interim leader since then. ‘And she did a very good job of it, too’, says RUG president Poppema. ‘But it will be nice for the board of the faculty to be complete with three members once again.’

‘We are delighted’

According to a press release from the RUG, professor Aarts will begin working as the dean on 1 August. He will also be working as a professor of Political Institutions and Behaviour in the faculty.

‘As a faculty, we are delighted by the appointment of Kees Aarts and we are very much looking forward to working together’, Landeweerd says.

Aarts achieved his PhD from the University of Twente in 1990 and his research expertise includes democracy, elections and public opinion. He is also the president of the Dutch Political Science Association and a member of the Social Sciences Council of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).