Despite the cutbacks that will also affect TU Delft, the preparations for the Rotterdam Campus are going ahead. The Executive Board has approved the so-called Development Plan which will bring the TU Delft branch a step closer. One challenge now is to attract millions of euros from external investors, another is to address concerns among staff and students.
The government is setting aside 61 million euros to compensate all current and former students who were fined by DUO and had to pay back their basic student grant. Around 10,000 people will receive restitution.
To mark their 25 year partnership, TU Delft and the University of Campinas (Brazil) launched an international academic leadership programme. Twelve participants started the course on Monday, 4 November 2024.
Even if you are not a believer, the Delft Old Church can be a place for reflection. TU Delft researcher Madelaine Ley organises the Sacred Sessions there on Tuesday evenings. “I wanted to satisfy a spiritual longing.”
After Leiden University, Utrecht University is now also planning to overhaul its Faculty of Humanities. Six Bachelor’s programmes, including German and French, will have to close up shop in 2030. Critics say the board has demonstrated a lack of transparency.
A sufficient budget and a clear editorial statute are important for an independent university magazine. But good chemistry between the board and editorial team also works wonders, the book ‘De stem van de universiteit’ (The voice of the university) shows.
One person really stood out last Friday at the protests in The Hague against the long-term study penalty. In the middle of the crowd stood a man who, at 80 years old, was well outside the average age: engineer Chris Zijdeveld, who has studied at TU Delft.
Researchers at Wageningen University (WUR) should not have lobbied on behalf of pesticide manufacturers. The university acknowledges that mistakes were made, and that “the appearance of a conflict of interest” arose following reports by the television programme Zembla.
Cutbacks or not, the workload in science must be reduced. That is what Minister Eppo Bruins writes to the House of Representatives. It’s “worrying” that after all these years, universities haven’t turned words into deeds.
