Secret funding of the chair possible due to errors University of Amsterdam

• Siebe Sietsma

  editorial research

• Youri Vugts

  news editor

Errors have accumulated on errors in the funding of professor by special appointment Hein Vermeulen at the University of Amsterdam. Due to a hidden construction, the professor’s real moneylender remained out of sight for years. This is clear from research commissioned by the university. Vermeulen took over last year dismissal once news hour revealed that he was secretly paid by an interest group of real estate investors.

When Vermeulen became a professor by special appointment at the University of Amsterdam in 2012, the university was short on money. That is why he himself arranges a lender, an interest group of real estate investors. However, he does not pay it directly, but through a training institute, the Amsterdam School of Real Estate.

This gives the impression that the chair endowed with Vermeulen is financed by a training institute, while its real sponsor is a real estate entrepreneurs’ interest group. This goes against academic convention: professors should be transparent about their interests and their funders to prevent them from being secretly influenced.

Research, conducted by the Berenschot office, now shows that the professor is not acting alone. His manager at the time, Chapter President Rob Cornelisse, is also aware of the construction. It is not apparent from the investigation to what extent Cornelisse subsequently discussed the construction with the university management.

When Vermeulen’s endowed professorship turns into a full professorship appointment in 2016, payments from the VBFV interest group will continue for another two years. It is 40,000 euros per year, which the UvA did not know. “It’s not
We know how many days a week the professor actually held the position,” the researchers say. Vermeulen also received a salary from the UvA itself.

Vermeulen also makes no mention of VBFV sponsorship in scientific publications. Nevertheless, an external committee concludes that the publications were not “in contradiction to the principles and standards of scientific integrity”.

Vermeulen and Cornelisse initially denied the existence of a secret financier to the university. They now admit to Berenschot researchers that this was indeed the case.

The current Dean of the Faculty of Law, André Nollkaemper, calls findings on “serious” secret funding. “The failure of the chair holder to provide the necessary transparency on the financial structure and to report the continued disbursement of external funding after the end of the endowed chair is not acceptable. The process surrounding the establishment and supervision of this chair in the period 2011-2016 below par. The former section president was not sufficiently critical in the exercise of his administrative responsibility.

The university does not say whether former section president Rob Cornelisse can stay at the university, where he is still a professor. The university considers this to be a matter between the employee and the employer. Cornelisse says he doesn’t want to answer news hour. Vermeulen did not respond to a request for comment.