Short news
Simply using the name and image of your favourite comic book character for your student society is not without its risks. The Utrecht-based strength sports club Obelix had to change its name, or else it risked a hefty fine.
For years, the sports club had used the name and image of the comic character Obelix – the super-strong Gaul who had fallen into a cauldron of magic potion as a child – without any problems. But at the end of 2024, when launching a new website and using images of Obelix on Instagram, things went wrong, reports the university magazine DUB.
They received a letter from publisher Les Editions Albert René, which owns the rights to the Asterix & Obelix comic strips. They were required to choose a different name immediately, amend their website and logo, and remove the social media posts. Otherwise, they would risk a fine of one thousand euros per infringement.
The sports club sought legal advice. As a non-profit organisation, the club would likely have been allowed to keep its name, they believed, but the students did not want to take on the legal battle. And so they continued under a new name: SKVU Mammoet, with a mammoth holding a barbell as its logo. (HOP, NB)
The new Dutch cabinet has agreed to a second payment for students affected by grant cuts (pechstudenten). They will receive €44.50 for each month of the basic grant they missed out on, amounting to a total of €2,136 over four years of study.
During the period 2015–2023, students did not receive a basic grant. “For students who studied without a basic grant, it is bitter that the basic grant was reinstated so soon after it was abolished,” says Education Minister Rianne Letschert.
Meagre
She submitted the bill regulating a second compensation payment for students affected by the changes to the House of Representatives on Friday 20 March. The second compensation payment was a promise made by the previous government, as the first payment was deemed too meagre.
The first allowance amounts to nearly €1,700 for a four-year course without a basic grant. Together with the second allowance, this totals over €3,800.
All amounts are deducted from the student debt. Any remaining balance is paid into the former student’s bank account. However, that account number must be provided to DUO within twelve months. (HOP, BB)
A man has been found guilty of ‘grooming’ and has been given a three-month suspended prison sentence. He had responded to a fake dating profile created by a journalism student as part of a study project.
For his project, the student wanted to investigate to what extent adult men would continue the contact if they discovered they were chatting to a minor. He planned to post his research on YouTube. It has not been disclosed where the student was studying.
The man, who is in his thirties, thought he was chatting to a fifteen-year-old girl. Via Snapchat and WhatsApp, he sent her sexually suggestive messages and suggested they meet up. Eventually, he booked a hotel room in Amsterdam Sloterdijk and went there to meet her. When the man actually suggested meeting up, the student reported the matter to the police. As evidence, he provided screenshots of the conversations he had had with the man.
The judge describes it as “a very brief case file” and considers it regrettable that the Public Prosecution Service did not conduct a more thorough investigation. Nevertheless, the judge rules that the research project provides sufficient evidence that the defendant is guilty of grooming. The man was given a three-month suspended prison sentence with a two-year probation period.
HOP, Naomi Bergshoeff
GroenLinks-PvdA has emerged as the largest party in the municipal elections in Delft. The merged party secured almost 20 per cent of the votes. D66 follows with 16 per cent, and the student party STIP with 14 per cent.
GroenLinks and PvdA already held nine seats between them and, as a merged party, retain that number. D66 increases its seats from six to seven. STIP retains six seats. The student party won the elections four years ago, when GroenLinks and PvdA participated separately.
Hart voor Delft remains on five seats. The VVD and CDA retain three and two seats respectively. Onafhankelijk Delft, the SP, ChristenUnie and Volt each lose one seat and end up with one seat. Newcomers the PVV, Forum voor Democratie and the Partij voor de Dieren also each secure one seat and make their debut in the council.
Turnout higher than in 2022
Turnout stood at 54.7 per cent. This is higher than in 2022, when 51.6 per cent of Delft voters made a trip to the polling stations.
In Delft, people could vote at 52 different polling stations. On the TU Delft campus, eligible voters could vote in the Aula. Other location included the town hall on the Markt and the Virgiel student society.
The final results will be confirmed on Thursday 26 March by the central electoral committee. It will then become clear which 39 council candidates will take their seats on the municipal council for the next four years. Preferential votes and residual seats will also be taken into account. The new council will be sworn in on Wednesday 1 April.
The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) has tightened its rules on AI. Notably, when applying for research funding, scientists are not allowed to ‘arm themselves against’ covert assessments by chatbots.
Last year, NWO already stipulated that assessors are not permitted to use generative AI when assessing grant applications. By uploading them to an AI programme, they would be breaching their duty of confidentiality, and the reliability of an AI assessment is also open to question.
Hidden prompts
In an updated guideline, NWO has further tightened the rules. It now states that assessors must formally confirm within the system that they have not used AI.
The new guidelines also state that applicants must not include ‘hidden prompts’ in their text. Last year, it emerged that scientists from countries including Japan and South Korea had deliberately included hidden instructions in their papers specifically for AI bots, so that reviewers using AI would give them a positive assessment. Tests showed that various chatbots were indeed more positive about papers containing such hidden prompts.
At first glance, NWO’s tightening of the rules seems superfluous, because if assessors do not use AI, the hidden prompts have no effect whatsoever. However, a spokesperson for NWO has stated that it cannot be ruled out that an external assessor might still use an AI tool.
And although AI is currently not permitted in the assessment process, “this could well be a development that NWO will explore in the future”.
Approved tools
Outside the assessment process, NWO staff are permitted to use AI, but only if the tool has been approved. Last year, only the translation application DeepL was permitted. Microsoft Copilot Chat has since also been declared safe. Tools such as ChatGPT and Perplexity remain excluded.
According to NWO, AI monitoring software that could detect whether AI has been used anywhere in the process is not reliable and is therefore not used.
HOP, Naomi Bergshoeff
Just a few more weeks to go and the time will finally be here: the first test runs of Tram 19 across the campus are scheduled. Anyone wishing to catch this momentous occasion will need to stay up late – or get up early. From Tuesday 7 April, test runs will take place two to three times a week between midnight and 6 am.
During the test runs, the track, overhead lines, technical installations and safety systems will be tested. The cycle and pedestrian crossings at Christiaan Huygensweg, Stieltjesweg and Berlageweg will only be closed whilst the tram is passing. The other crossings will be inaccessible between 10 pm and 6 am on test nights.
Busses on the Mekelweg
From June to August, test runs without passengers will take place to familiarise staff with the new section of track.
From 7 April, buses will resume their usual routes. Bus routes 69, 40 and 172 will run via Mekelweg, and bus route 455 via Christiaan Huygensweg. For more information about bus routes 69 and 455, visit www.ebs-ov.nl; for more information about bus routes 40 and 172, visit www.ret.nl.
If all goes well, the tram will enter service in early September. Tram 19 runs between Leidschendam, Delft station and TU Delft Campus.
A police officer is to appear in court after his service dog bit a demonstrator during a protest at Radboud University Nijmegen. This is announced by the Public Prosecution Service.
In early May last year, a number of activists forced their way into the administration building of Radboud University Nijmegen. They demanded that the Executive Board end its cooperation with Israeli institutions.
The university stated that they used violence in the process. For instance, a protester allegedly bit a security guard on the hand, and two other staff members were struck and scratched. The university then called in the police.
Offence
After discussions with the officers, the activists left the building. The police attempted to arrest one of the demonstrators but met with resistance. The officers then decided to use their batons and a police dog.
One of the protesters was bitten on the leg by the dog for several tens of seconds, causing her to sustain serious injuries. The Public Prosecution Service now refers to ‘a breach of official instructions’.
Chaotic situation
The police were indeed permitted to use force ‘in this chaotic and threatening situation’, writes the Public Prosecution Service, but not against this specific demonstrator. She was already lying on the ground and was not resisting the police.
The police officer who deployed the dog must now answer to the court. One of the protesters is also being prosecuted for assaulting two security guards and for resisting arrest.
Apologies
The student union AKKU calls it good news that the officer is being prosecuted, but feels it has taken far too long. The union is demanding that university president Alexandra van Huffelen apologises for calling in the police.
In a press release, Van Huffelen says she regrets the situation: “It is appalling that one of our students has been so seriously injured.” She adds: “It is good that clarity is being provided about what happened.”
HOP, Naomi Bergshoeff
The public prosecutor’s office suspects two pro-Palestinian demonstrators of assaulting a board member of VU University Amsterdam. He was beaten last year and suffered hearing damage when demonstrators shouted into his ear with a megaphone.
From a pro-Palestinian tent camp on the VU campus, demonstrators spotted board member Marcel Nollen. When they caught up with him, he fled into a building. Nollen was trapped in the revolving door and beaten, reported university magazine Ad Valvas. The attackers also shouted into his ear with a megaphone. The police eventually had to free him.
Assault
Last Tuesday, two suspects appeared in court on suspicion of deprivation of liberty, Ad Valvas writes. On Tuesday, the Public Prosecution Service added “assault” to the charges. Nollen is said to have suffered permanent tinnitus as a result of the incident.
The judge postponed the substantive hearing of the case for four weeks because the Public Prosecution Service presented three new witness statements from campus security guards at short notice. The suspects’ lawyers had not yet had time to study them. (HOP, OL)
Odido provided incorrect information to TU Delft about the cyber attack in February. According to the telecom provider, TU business subscriptions were not affected, but it now appears that data from TU employees has been leaked after all.
Odido announced this on Tuesday 10 March in an email to the affected TU employees. The university also posted a message about this on its intranet that day.
No passwords
According to that message, no passwords or password hashes were leaked. “It is therefore not necessary to change your password,” according to TU Delft. However, the hackers did steal and publish the first names, surnames, email addresses, mobile numbers and dates of birth of the business accounts. The university advises employees to be extra alert to attempts at phishing or other fraudulent activities.
- Update 17 March 2026: On Monday 16 March, TU Delft posted further information about the data breach on its intranet. According to Odido, only TU Delft staff members who have installed the Odido app and logged in using a TU Delft work account and phone number have been affected.
In mid-February, the hacker group Shinyhunters stole the data of more than 6.2 million Odido customers. The hackers demanded a ransom of around 1 million euros to prevent the data from being published. Odido decided not to pay, after which the data was published on the dark web, a difficult-to-find part of the internet.
After 35 years, the Ig Nobel Prizes for funny research are leaving the United States. This year, they will be awarded in Switzerland so that all winners can attend, the organisation has announced.
The Ig Nobel Prizes are awarded for research that first makes you smile and then makes you think. Dutch researchers often win these prizes.
Biologist Kees Moeliker, for example, won an Ig Nobel Prize in 2003 for his article on necrophilia in ducks. He is now involved in the organisation. “The ceremony stands or falls with the presence of the winners,” Moeliker told De Volkskrant. “And last year we noticed that four of the ten winners dropped out. America is no longer a pleasant country to visit, if only because of the hassle with visas.”
The Trump administration has launched an attack on academic freedom. And anyone who expresses criticism of the US on social media may not be granted a visa. So this year’s ceremony will take place in Zurich on 3 September. Three weeks later, there will still be a meeting in Boston, according to the website.
Highly regarded in the scientific world
The Ig Nobel Prizes are awarded in the run-up to the Nobel Prizes. They are highly regarded in the scientific world. Nobel Prize winners are always involved in the award ceremony.
One winner of an Ig Nobel Prize later went on to win the ‘real’ Nobel Prize. In 2000, Dutch (now British) physicist Andre Geim received an Ig Nobel Prize for levitating a frog in a magnetic field. Ten years later, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics – not for the levitating frog, but for the invention of graphene. (HOP, BB)
