About Us

Room for Discussion is the interview platform of the University of Amsterdam. We organise weekly interviews with professors, entrepreneurs, economists, politicians, philosophers, CEOs and journalists to discuss relevant economic topics and recent events. Our goal is to bridge the gap between the world of academia and the world of economic and political reality.

Our ‘living room’ with its characteristic Chesterfields is situated in the central hall of the E-building at the Roeterseilandcampus of the University of Amsterdam. The weekly interviews are open to all students from all universities. During the interview, the audience also has the opportunity to ask questions to the guests on stage.

If you cannot make it to our living room for the interviews, you don’t have to miss a thing. Watch the interviews at home via the live stream or read the best bits in real-time by following us on Twitter. Please like us on Facebook too, so we can keep you up to date on upcoming interviews and events.

History

In September 2008, the American bank Lehman Brothers fell. This bankruptcy marked the beginning of one of the most devastating financial crisis, the world has ever seen. This crisis affected the entire world and profoundly changed the way people looked at economics as a science. People started discussing the causes and effects of the financial meltdown around the globe and also at the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Amsterdam.

A group of students, led by Maurits Kruithof, started Room for Discussion to facilitate this discussion and to bridge the gap between economics in the news and economics as a science. Since then, Room for Discussion has organised weekly hour-long interviews about economic and political topics. By combining a journalistic approach with scientific rigour, Room for Discussion connects the world of academia with reality.

Leading economists, politicians and entrepreneurs have joined us on our stage to discuss recent events on politics and economics. We have had the honour to receive guests such as Christine Lagarde (IMF), Mario Draghi (ECB), Jeroen Dijsselbloem, Ratan Tata, Larry Summers, Thomas Piketty and many others.

Join the Committee

More interviews are to come and we are always on the lookout for potential interviewers who are  enthusiastic, eager to learn and have a journalistic drive. Do you want to join our committee? Read more on how we work and on the application procedure here.

Room for Discussion is made possible by