Dirk Reynders will retire as director of the Amsterdam Fashion Institute (Amfi). Last year, a highly critical report found that there was “a socially unsafe to very unsafe” atmosphere. Reynders had to tackle the problems at the institute, but in a letter to employees he wrote that he did not see himself as the right man for the task. A spokesperson for the Hogeschool van Amsterdam (HvA), which includes fashion education, confirms this on Monday evening after reporting by the website Hvana.
It is not yet known who will succeed Reynders as director of the largest fashion study program in the Netherlands. “I notice that my personal motivations and qualities lie mainly in the substantive aspects of education, research and fashion,” writes the departing director in his letter to Amfi employees. “That’s why I came to the beautiful fashion institute Amfi at the time. But we really need something different now.”
Also read: Critical report: Amsterdam Fashion Institute is not a safe learning and working environment
Reynders, director of the program since February 2019, refers to the transition that the university of applied sciences expects from Amfi after research agency Bezemer & Schubad published a very critical report last year. This showed that students are confronted with too much work pressure and some of them were intimidated by teachers. Some teachers would act as “tough, villainous judges” with a lack of “empathic and didactic qualities” and one of them would normalize “energy-boosting drugs” for the benefit of students’ creativity.
When the report was published, Reynders said he was “sad” about the conclusions. At the time, he apologized to students and teachers of the program, but some (former) Amfi students, united in the action group ‘Time to Tell Amfi’, were critical of Reynders’ performance. and demanded his departure. According to the students, Reynders did not really tackle the problems at hand.
Also read this profile of the Amsterdam Fashion Institute: Tough training with a ‘separate status’
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