Following Maastricht University’s (UM) recent announcement that it plans to start a new Science College next year, the university is left wondering why the country’s other universities of technology have reacted so negatively to this development.
TU Eindhoven has been the fiercest critic of UM’s proposed plan to launch a Science College offering programmes in science and technology based subjects. UM’s rector, Louis Boon, however reacted with fighting words of his own, stating that TU Eindhoven ‘has no vision of education’ and offers ‘bloody awful programmes’ (‘kloteprogramma’s’ in Dutch), in an interview in the Observant, UM’s university newspaper.
The Netherlands’ three established university’s of technology – TU Delft, TU Eindhoven and TU Twente – have expressed concerns that with the addition of UM’s new Science College, the Netherlands will subsequently offer too many science and technology based educational programmes. But Boon says the market is not yet saturated: “The point is that you offer attractive programmes,” he said, adding that especially TU Eindhoven, which also has a BSc degree programme in ‘liberal engineering sciences’ in the pipeline, has no grounds for complaint: “The situation in Eindhoven is a total disaster….Their new expanded BSc programme will be the same mess as the rest, that I am convinced of.”
Meanwhile, UM’s president, Dr Jo Ritzen, has stated that he also does not understand the concerns expressed by the other Dutch universities of technology. In an interview in ScienceGuide, he said: “We have said to Eindhoven: ‘join with us’. But instead, people are now working against us. The Netherlands is far too small for us to compete against each other.” But from all the much-publicised turmoil, Ritzen does see one clear benefit: “Since this all started, I’ve received twenty applications for our Science College’s 2011-2012 academic year.”
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