Last weekend, De Gelderlander reported that in 2017 Han van Krieken had made remarks to a female employee that, according to an external committee, could have been perceived as sexually intimidating. After a complaint by the woman in question was declared valid, the Rector Magnificus was given a warning. The university kept quiet about the incident. The news came out six years later, however, in the newspaper.

Today, university magazine VOX reports that Van Krieken has stepped down with immediate effect as Rector Magnificus and not on 17 October, when Radboud University celebrates its centenary. “I am aware that the situation stands in the way of the centenary celebrations”, he writes on the university website.

For the same reason, Van Krieken is giving up the interim chairmanship of Universities of the Netherlands (UNL), which has been looking for a new chair since the departure of Pieter Duisenberg.