The concluding Thursday of the Kick-In had become a fixture in recent years: a final half-day in which associations could showcase themselves once more, followed by a food truck dinner and the closing ‘Kick-Out Festival’. That will now disappear from the programme.
The decision did not come out of the blue, explain Anna Hovenkamp and Simone van den Heuvel, board members of the Student Union. ‘Since 2025, there has been an advice from a working group aimed at closing the financial gap,’ says Van den Heuvel. ‘Based on that advice, a committee started exploring scenarios that were logistically feasible.’
The chosen solution is to remove the final day altogether. The bachelor’s and master’s programmes will also be aligned, although the target groups will remain separate. As a result, from 2027 onwards the Kick-In will consist of five days of extracurricular activities for all new students, followed by a day of rest and then the programme-specific introductions. ‘In total, half a day is being cut,’ says Hovenkamp. ‘The programme is now sequential: first the extracurricular Kick-In, then the programme introductions. After that, students still have some time to recover before their first lectures start the following week.’
Shorter tent rental period
According to the Student Union board members, the largest saving comes from being able to dismantle the large marquee earlier. ‘That also means scaling back other facilities and activities connected to it, such as the Kick-Out Festival,’ says Hovenkamp. ‘Shortening the rental period of the marquee by just a few days already makes a huge difference in terms of costs.’
Will the change be enough to put the introduction period on a financially healthy footing? ‘The first budget projections suggest it will,’ says Van den Heuvel. ‘But we will only know for sure in September 2027, once the Kick-In has taken place in this new format.’
The new five-member Kick-In committee will begin working on the assignment in November. The overall aim of the Kick-In remains unchanged, the Student Union board members stress: ‘To provide new students with an enjoyable and valuable introduction in August.’
