Debate: is a large university better?

Last year, to much fanfare, the Executive Board announced that TU Delft will grow significantly in the next few years and will establish campuses in other cities such as The Hague and Rotterdam. Since then, the Executive Board has held ‘consultation rounds’ with staff and has spoken to students and some neighbourhood residents. But a gathering in which students, staff members and people in Delft meet together has not yet been held. Studium Generale and Delta want to change this.

Should a university always meet the demands of corporations? Does the growth fit today’s other challenges such as sustainability? And how do you keep a campus liveable for students, staff, and the people of Delft? These kinds of questions will be at the centre of the meeting which is called ‘The Colossal Campus: Is bigger always better?’. Sign up here.

The event will be held from 17:00 to 19:00 at the TU Delft Library and will take the form of a theatrical dialogue in which actors express the different standpoints from teachers who see opportunities voor collaboration in growth and more campuses, to residents who are afraid of more disturbances from students. A panel of experts will also have a say.

• Remco Breuker is Professor of Korea Studies at the University of Leiden. He is a member of WOinActie and co-author of the ‘Veertig stellingen over de wetenschap’ (forty statements on academia) pamphlet.
• Marten Leenders is the Chair of the Central Student Council. His position is that ‘supplying more engineers in the future must not be at the cost of the well-being of students’.
• Julian Gommers is a neighborhood resident in Delft and was previously actively involved in a neighborhood association. He experiences daily what it is like to live in a city where the university has such a strong presence.
• It will soon be made known which teacher or researcher will be part of the expert panel.
• Frank Kupper is a theatre director and actor. He is a researcher at the Free University of Amsterdam’s Athena Institute and designed this theatrical dialogue.

Do you want to know more about the growth plans? Delta wrote the following articles on the subject. 

• Residents full of questions about TU Delft’s growth plans
• Rector: ‘The message is growth
• Part lecturers critical of TU Delft’s growth plans
• Representative bodies ask (a lot of) questions about the growth scenario
• Committees will advise on the future of TU Delft