Nibs

When her family reported the extortion to China Central Television, and the station broadcast the story in prime-time, a nationwide scandal erupted. The university’s president said the incident was an isolated event, but many claim that such practices occur frequently. China’s Ministry of Education has since issued a statement forbidding the practice.
Illegal fees

An additional fee charged to international students has been declared illegal. The University of Massachusetts (US) recently began charging international students a $65 processing fee to cover the costs of the international programs office, including running the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), required by the US federal government for tracking foreign students. The Graduate Employee Organization challenged the fee as discriminatory, and recently an arbitrator agreed with them. The University was told to stop charging the fee and to return any money already collected.
Home study

The Mexican government is encouraging students to attend domestic graduate programs rather than studying abroad. The government has cut scholarships for graduate studies abroad for the past five years, not to save money but rather to promote the ability of domestic institutions to offer world-class graduate programs. Since 2000, the number of international scholarships has been cut from 1469 to 691 this year. Critics say that these policies deprive Mexican students of the best educations in many fields and will hurt the country’s science and technology future.
Tech Day

This year’s Technology Day is on Saturday, 6 November, in the Aula. This theme is ‘Life without Risks’ and registration is free. The event aims to promote interaction between alumni, students and staff of TU Delft, and corporate and government representatives. Opening round activities include a reading on ‘Safe Construction with Glass’; a master class in ‘Analysis of Accidents’; a discussion on the ‘Acceptance of Risks’; and an excursion to a student racing team’s workshop. Register via the website before October 15.

www.technologiedag.tudelft.nl
Jobs cuts

At least 500 TU Delft employees will lose their jobs in the next couple of years. To be more precise: 495 ‘ftes’ will disappear, but as an fte is the equivalent of a full-time job, and many TU employees work part-time jobs, the job losses will be significantly higher. Marketing & Communication, Personnel & Organisation, and ICT are all examples of support service departments that will be significantly effected by the job cuts. The basic idea is that less people can do the same work if a revamped organisation enables them to work in a more efficient manner. Universities like TU Eindhoven have shown that this can be done without a loss of quality, the TU Executive Board says. Contacts between ‘clients’ and supporting services will be more business-like: in some cases, the dean of a faculty will be no longer an employee but a client of the university who has a right to be informed about prices, delivery times, etc.
Job gains

Every cloud has a silver lining: the TU’s reorganisation may have some interesting long-term effects for foreigners wanting to study or do research at TU Delft. The TU intends to use the money that is saved by employing fewer support services personnel for bolstering the ‘core business’ of the university: education and especially research. More research projects means that TU Delft will employ more PhDs and post-docs in the coming years. And while support services like ICT may have to say goodbye to up to 45 percent of its current employees, one support service is actually allowed to hire more people: Education & Student Affairs (Onderwijs en Studentenzaken), which covers ‘internationalisation’. The TU’s International Office, which currently has five fte (or full-time jobs), will be allowed to expand to 7 fte, in part to help the department overcome the administrative problems caused by the previous university reorganisation.

Extortion

A Chinese student has charged university officials with extortion. A student admitted to Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics was reportedly forced to pay $12,000 in order to guarantee her a place. When her family reported the extortion to China Central Television, and the station broadcast the story in prime-time, a nationwide scandal erupted. The university’s president said the incident was an isolated event, but many claim that such practices occur frequently. China’s Ministry of Education has since issued a statement forbidding the practice.
Illegal fees

An additional fee charged to international students has been declared illegal. The University of Massachusetts (US) recently began charging international students a $65 processing fee to cover the costs of the international programs office, including running the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), required by the US federal government for tracking foreign students. The Graduate Employee Organization challenged the fee as discriminatory, and recently an arbitrator agreed with them. The University was told to stop charging the fee and to return any money already collected.
Home study

The Mexican government is encouraging students to attend domestic graduate programs rather than studying abroad. The government has cut scholarships for graduate studies abroad for the past five years, not to save money but rather to promote the ability of domestic institutions to offer world-class graduate programs. Since 2000, the number of international scholarships has been cut from 1469 to 691 this year. Critics say that these policies deprive Mexican students of the best educations in many fields and will hurt the country’s science and technology future.
Tech Day

This year’s Technology Day is on Saturday, 6 November, in the Aula. This theme is ‘Life without Risks’ and registration is free. The event aims to promote interaction between alumni, students and staff of TU Delft, and corporate and government representatives. Opening round activities include a reading on ‘Safe Construction with Glass’; a master class in ‘Analysis of Accidents’; a discussion on the ‘Acceptance of Risks’; and an excursion to a student racing team’s workshop. Register via the website before October 15.

www.technologiedag.tudelft.nl
Jobs cuts

At least 500 TU Delft employees will lose their jobs in the next couple of years. To be more precise: 495 ‘ftes’ will disappear, but as an fte is the equivalent of a full-time job, and many TU employees work part-time jobs, the job losses will be significantly higher. Marketing & Communication, Personnel & Organisation, and ICT are all examples of support service departments that will be significantly effected by the job cuts. The basic idea is that less people can do the same work if a revamped organisation enables them to work in a more efficient manner. Universities like TU Eindhoven have shown that this can be done without a loss of quality, the TU Executive Board says. Contacts between ‘clients’ and supporting services will be more business-like: in some cases, the dean of a faculty will be no longer an employee but a client of the university who has a right to be informed about prices, delivery times, etc.
Job gains

Every cloud has a silver lining: the TU’s reorganisation may have some interesting long-term effects for foreigners wanting to study or do research at TU Delft. The TU intends to use the money that is saved by employing fewer support services personnel for bolstering the ‘core business’ of the university: education and especially research. More research projects means that TU Delft will employ more PhDs and post-docs in the coming years. And while support services like ICT may have to say goodbye to up to 45 percent of its current employees, one support service is actually allowed to hire more people: Education & Student Affairs (Onderwijs en Studentenzaken), which covers ‘internationalisation’. The TU’s International Office, which currently has five fte (or full-time jobs), will be allowed to expand to 7 fte, in part to help the department overcome the administrative problems caused by the previous university reorganisation.