Short news
The municipality of Delft will not be granting exemptions for the setting off of organised fireworks displays during the 2026–2027 New Year celebrations. The municipality announced this in a press release. At the same time, Mayor Alexander Pechtold is calling on residents to help come up with alternatives.
Although the law allows local authorities, from 1 August 2026, to grant exemptions to local associations and foundations under certain conditions, Delft will not be making use of this provision this year. The council has opted for a general policy of not granting any exemptions. From the same date, a nationwide ban on consumer fireworks will also come into force. Only light fireworks in category F1, such as sparklers, will remain permitted.
Difficult to implement
According to Pechtold, the conditions for an exemption are difficult to implement in practice. He points, amongst other things, to rules concerning safety, supervision and the quantity of fireworks. He also notes that the police and special investigating officers would already be fully deployed during the New Year’s celebrations. In addition, the municipality mentions monitoring compliance with the conditions and enforcing the fireworks ban as areas of concern.
“For me, the most important thing is that New Year’s Eve is a festive occasion for all residents. New Year’s Eve is an evening when people come together, meet up and celebrate the new year,” said Pechtold.
Alternatives
The policy will initially apply for one year. After that, the municipality will review how the New Year’s Eve celebrations went in consultation with the safety triangle.
The municipality is encouraging residents to organise alternative activities. In this regard, it refers to the ‘Vuurtje met je buurtje’ (Bonfire with your Neighbours) initiative, which was held last year to promote social interaction in neighbourhoods. “I invite all Delft residents to contribute ideas on new ways to celebrate the New Year,” says Pechtold in the press release.
Eindhoven University of Technology (TU Eindhoven, TU/e) is ending its partnerships with several Chinese universities that have close ties to the Chinese military. Research involving universities in Russia and Iran has already been halted, according to the university magazine Cursor.
In December, TU Eindhoven’s Executive Board adopted a policy on knowledge security. The aim is to prevent sensitive knowledge from being transferred and potentially used for military purposes.
Researchers at TU Eindhoven are required to end any existing collaborations with certain Chinese institutions, according to an email sent this week by one of the university’s faculties to its staff. In addition, collaborations with other institutions in Russia and Iran must also be discontinued. The sanctions against Russia and Iran have been in place for some time.
In China, the measure applies, among others, to the seven leading universities collectively known as the Seven Sons of National Defence. These universities maintain close links with the People’s Liberation Army, which operates under the authority of the Chinese Communist Party.
What’s the situation at TU Delft?
TU Delft advises academics wishing to collaborate with international counterparts to consult the Knowledge Security Advisory Service and the Partnering Tools. The advisory guidance states, among other things, that collaboration is “generally highly undesirable” if an institution or individual is directly or indirectly affiliated with a military organisation outside the EU or NATO. Researchers at TU Delft may also submit a knowledge security case to the university’s Knowledge Security Advisory Team for assessment. (HOP, NB/ Delta, AdB)
Perhaps you remember what it was like yourself: your first day as a student in Delft, with a brand-new OWee wristband on your wrist and a head full of questions. Fortunately, there was an OWee mentor there to show you the ropes. The OWee board is currently looking for volunteers who would like to mentor a small group of first-year students from Sunday 16 August to Thursday 20 August.
As a mentor, you’ll work alongside another mentor to support a group of students who are going to be studying the same degree programme. Your main task is to answer all their questions, but you’ll also help foster a sense of community within the group.
Sharing experiences
“It’s a really rewarding experience because you get to share your own perspective on Delft,” says OWee chair Emma Groeneveld. “New students often aren’t familiar with the city or student organisations yet, so as a mentor you play an important role in helping them find their footing. In short, mentors are essential during the OWee.”
You can sign up as a pair or on your own, in which case the OWee board will help you find a fellow mentor. After the OWee, you’ll receive a stipend of €30 for your help. You can register via the OWee website.
[Update: 27 June 2026, 9.15 AM and 29 June 2026, 12.12 PM]
The new interfaculty Bachelor’s programme in health and technology has received a preliminary positive judgement from the evaluation panel of the accreditation organisation NVAO. This judgement was given at the end of the site visit. On Thursday 25 June, the intranet stated that the accreditation had been finalised, but that post – which had the name of Dean Cokky Hilhorst of the Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management below it – has since been removed. According to a spokesperson, it was an editorial error.
The programme, a collaboration between five TU Delft faculties, Erasmus MC and Erasmus University, is set to launch in 2027 and plays a central role in the plans for Campus Rotterdam.
The Bachelor’s programme focuses on major challenges in healthcare, such as an ageing population, staff shortages and rising costs. Students are trained to become engineers capable of shaping technological and systemic changes in healthcare.
Manageable steps
A Participatory Value Assessment previously revealed that staff and students were divided over the TU Delft’s plans for Rotterdam: a significant proportion supported the plans only under certain conditions, such as financial certainty and demonstrable added value for education and research.
According to the programme team, work is underway to meet these conditions. For instance, chair Maaike Kleinsmann and vice-chair Han Derkx previously emphasised in Delta that ‘no step will be taken without funding’ and that development is taking place in small, manageable steps.
- Read more about Campus Rotterdam in our dossier.
A 23-year-old student at Radboud University Nijmegen has been sentenced to six years in prison for raping four fellow students. He must also pay 21 thousand euros in compensation.
A total of seventeen women reported rape or sexual assault, according to the university magazine Vox (in Dutch). Five of them actually filed a police report. Two more recent reports are still being investigated by the Public Prosecution Service.
The court found him guilty of four counts of rape (In Dutch). The student was acquitted of one count of rape, for which the judge deemed there was insufficient evidence.
Diminished responsibility
According to Vox, the student approached women in Nijmegen’s nightlife scene and via dating apps, and took them back to his student room. There, he became rough and violent: he squeezed their throats and forced their hands or heads towards his genitals. He was arrested in the summer of 2025.
The man is on the autism spectrum and has narcissistic personality traits, which is said to mean he has diminished responsibility. Due to his condition, he is said to be less able to recognise social and non-verbal cues.
Nevertheless, the court considers a six-year prison sentence to be appropriate. The Public Prosecution Service had sought eight years. (HOP, NB)
In May, students searched for student accommodation more frequently than in the previous month. In the Netherlands, this represented a 16% increase, and in Delft, a 34% increase.
This is according to figures from the international letting platform HousingAnywhere, which also owns Kamernet.nl. The platform analysed search and letting data in the run-up to the summer peak in the rental market.
Search activity also increased in other student cities, including Maastricht (29%), Utrecht (28%) and Amsterdam (23%).
According to the platform, search behaviour is shifting: students are increasingly starting their search as early as spring to beat the summer rush. Of the students who rented accommodation in May, 39% plan to move in August or September.
Room shortage
The shortage of student accommodation is estimated by the Kences research centre at around 21,500 rooms and could rise to between 23,000 and 30,000 by 2026. At the same time, the supply on rental platforms is increasing slightly. HousingAnywhere reports a 9% increase in cities including Amsterdam and Rotterdam. On Kamernet, 8% more properties were listed in May than a year earlier.
The Abtswoudse Bridge in Delft will be closed to cyclists and pedestrians from Monday 29 June to Friday 28 August 2026 due to major maintenance work.
The bridge is an important transport link to and from the campus. Cyclists and pedestrians who normally use the bridge will be diverted via the Hambrug. The diversion route will be signposted with yellow signs.
The Province of South Holland is carrying out the maintenance to keep the bridge safe and in good condition. From Monday 22 June onwards, preparatory works along the Proosdijpad may already cause reduced access to the bridge at times.
Shipping and rowing traffic will also face restrictions. At various times, passage will be blocked or only partially possible.
- More information is available on the Province of South Holland website or via the BouwApp (in Dutch).
Eleven of the thirteen universities in the Netherlands are losing ground in the global rankings by research agency QS. The top ten is still dominated by British and American universities, with only ETH Zurich in Switzerland and the National University of Singapore, ranked eighth and tenth respectively, as exceptions.
Ten years ago, twelve Dutch universities were in the top 200; now only nine remain. TU Delft is currently ranked 48th instead of 47th—still one place higher than in 2024, when it was ranked 49th. Most other Dutch universities have also dropped in the rankings, with the exception of Leiden University, which has maintained its position, and VU Amsterdam, which performed slightly better this year.
That said, the Netherlands is still doing relatively well. Universities in other countries are simply making progress faster than Dutch institutions, according to the ranking’s creators, which causes the Netherlands to fall slightly overall.
Criticism of these rankings
The QS ranking considers factors such as a university’s reputation among academics, the proportion of international students and staff, and graduates’ performance in the job market. In recent years, sustainability has also been included, covering topics such as climate and social equality.
There is, however, regular criticism of these rankings: how can a single score be assigned to an entire university, with all its staff and students? For this reason, there are frequent calls to disregard such rankings. At the same time, others argue that these comparisons still say something about the global position of Dutch universities.
HOP, Naomi Bergshoeff/ Delta, Annebelle de Bruijn
Associate professor of psychology Yannick G. of Radboud University Nijmegen was found to have altered an invoice for participant compensation and was dismissed in 2025. After that, his scientific work came under scrutiny. One of his articles has since been retracted, and others are still under investigation.
G. was a striking figure, who, for example, appeared in a university profile photo wearing a royal robe and sitting on a throne, VOX writes (using his full name). Some PhD candidates in the department were fond of him; he entered into a relationship with one of them, while he came into conflict with another.
He denies the allegations of scientific fraud. However, university magazine VOX has now contacted his colleagues in Brussels and in Calgary, Canada, and there too he reportedly came into conflict. His former colleagues in Brussels once ended their collaboration with him, partly because G. would sometimes refuse to share data and then offer excuses. “He had forgotten, or his computer had crashed,” says a Flemish professor.
At the University of Calgary, he left under a confidentiality agreement. Nevertheless, according to anonymous sources, questions were also raised there about how G. handled research data. One anonymous former colleague told VOX: “It is time people find this out.” (HOP, BB)
Following two months of nighttime test runs, tram 19 has also been undergoing daytime testing on the campus since this week. Operator HTM is running trial runs on the new route between Delft station and the Van den Broekweg stop to check whether the line functions safely and reliably.
Until the end of June, the trams will run according to the future timetable, but still without passengers. The test runs take place on weekdays between 8:00 and 18:00. Traffic lights, stops, signals, switches and other systems along the route are being tested in the process. On a few days, trams will also run in the evening, so that the functioning of the systems in the dark can be checked.
For the first time in 22 years
The daytime tests follow the first nighttime test runs, which took place in early April. At that time, a tram ran across the campus for the first time, 22 years after the plans for the line were given the green light.
The arrival of tram 19 has a long history. Since the project was approved in 2004, construction has repeatedly been delayed. For instance, measures had to be taken to limit vibrations and electromagnetic radiation affecting sensitive research equipment. The Sint Sebastiaansbrug also turned out to be unsuitable for the new tram traffic and had to be replaced. In addition, part of the track had to be relaid after problems were discovered with an underground high-voltage cable.
If the current trial runs are successful, tram 19 should officially start running from the beginning of the coming academic year. It will then form a fast connection between Leidschendam, Delft station and the campus.
