What is the status of the workload and social safety issue at TU Delft now? The Netherlands Labour Authority will visit this week to check these. The inspectors will return in March and April. The investigation is a follow-up to that of 2024 when TU Delft was rated as inadequate.

On Thursday, around twenty TU Delft students and staff gathered in the café of Sports Centre X to watch master’s student Tijmen Snel’s Olympic 1,500 metres race together.

Staff and students at TU Delft can participate in moral deliberation training courses from March onwards. The aim is to teach them how to make decisions about complex issues in a structured manner.

The Dutch Data Protection Authority wants clarification from TU Delft and the police about their agreement on sharing personal data. Last week, Delta revealed that TU Delft sometimes provides the police with the names of activists prior to demonstrations. This is regulated in a covenant.

Around ten protesters staged a noise protest at the Delft Career Days on Tuesday afternoon. They were protesting against the presence of fossil fuel companies and companies linked to the military industry. However, the music was so loud that the activists could hardly talk to passing students.

Delft’s PvdA and GroenLinks political parties have asked Mayor Pechtold for clarification about the cooperation between the police and TU Delft. Delta revealed this week that TU Delft sometimes secretly passes on the names of demonstrators to the police prior to announced demonstrations. As yet, TU Delft seems to be the only university that does this.

TU Delft sometimes shares the names of students and staff with the police without their knowledge. This concerns people who want to participate in announced demonstrations on campus. Enquiries reveal that this practice falls within the scope of an agreement between the police and TU Delft. Amnesty International is critical: “Who demonstrates for what, is sensitive personal data that does not belong in databases.”

A PhD candidate at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering should not have received a ‘no-go’ decision in April 2024. That is the ruling of the court in The Hague. There were ‘many irregularities’. With this ruling, the judge has overruled not only the Committee for Doctorates, but also the Doctoral Arbitration Committee. TU Delft says it will not appeal and wants to consult with the PhD candidate.

Higher education media are losing readers to AI, just like other news websites. Tougher legislation could be a solution, but Gouke Moes, the minister overseeing the media portfolio, isn’t prepared to back them for now. There is also no mention of this in the coalition agreement.

Tim van der Hagen was Chair of the Executive Board of TU Delft for 10 years. He was also Rector for the last eight years. He bid farewell in mid-January. Delta interviewed him about what he has and has not achieved, and what he will and will not miss. He once again apologised for the lack of social safety.