News in Brief

So what’s your solution? Enter the TU Delft Urban Water Movie Contest by sending in your film, lasting up to 3 minutes. The best three entries (deadline May 15) will be premiered exclusively during TU Delft’s Water Week, during the Gala première Urban Water Movie. The best film will also win 1000 euros.

tudelfturbanwatermoviecontest.org

Win an e-bike

TU Delft is not only the oldest, but also the largest university of technology in the Netherlands, which means commuting – preferably sustainable commuting. Some 48% of all TU staff members regularly bike to work. To encourage even more people to travel by bicycle, May 10 is ‘Bike to Work’ day in the Netherlands. By registering at fietsnaarjewerkdag.nl, staff members who bike to work on May 10 are eligible to win a Pick-up Electric bicycle.

World’s first

On May 8, in Epe, Dutch Crown Prince Willem-Alexander will open the first waste-water treatment plant to use a new water treatment technology called Nereda. This innovative technology, developed by TU Delft, consultancy and engineering firm DHV and six water boards makes it possible to treat domestic and commercial waste water in a sustainable, energy efficient manner. Thanks to this new technology, waste-water treatment takes up a much smaller surface area, resulting in significant savings in energy use and building costs for new plants.

Summer in China

Thirty top students from every university in the Netherlands have been selected for the 2012 Netherlands–Asia Honours Summer School. This summer school, funded by a public-private partnership between Dutch universities, companies and government ministries, acknowledges China’s increasing importance and the urgency of acting together immediately to benefit from China’s growth. The first student group will attend two four-week courses at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, with courses varying from international business to Chinese culture and society. The students will also meet Dutch companies and entrepreneurs based in China.

www.summerinasia.nl

Housing recovery

The housing market needs help to recover, but now that Prime Minister’s Cabinet has fallen, it could still be some time before measures are adopted. Peter Boelhouwer, professor of housing systems and the director of the OTB research institute, isn’t overly concerned by a possible delay of a few months. “It’s strange that the Cabinet fell while the plans were already in place, but it is good news. The measures devised in the Catshuis (the Dutch Prime Minister’s residence, ed.) were too weak or even counterproductive.”

Water filter

A vertical underground osmose filter for making drinking water not only saves 40 percent of energy, it may also push back salination. Reverse osmosis (forcing water at high pressures through micro membranes) is an established yet energy-hungry way of making drinking water from brackish or even salt water. Dr Bas Heijman (CEGS) designed a vertical filtering unit called Puro, which makes use of hydrostatic pressure to force the water through the membranes and thus needs less energy to function. Even better: ground water expert Professor Theo Olsthoorn (CEGS) has shown in animations that Puro pushes the salt water back deeper in the ground and thus fights progressing salination of groundwater and agricultural land. (See article on Page 13: ‘Zoethouder tegen verzilting’)

Summer Dutch course

This summer, the Centre for Languages and Academic Skills will again be offering interested parties the opportunity to follow an extremely intensive Dutch language course. The course is designed for employees and students who already have a strong command of German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish or Icelandic, because these languages have points in common with Dutch and thus quick results are possible. The Delft Method allows course participants to acquire large amounts of vocabulary in a very short time. They learn words through texts covering wide-ranging subjects pertaining to Dutch society. During the lessons, all focus is on conversation. Dutch is the only language spoken.

www.dm.tudelft.nl

Wisler workshop

Dave Wisler is visiting TU Delft from 25-26 April. Wisler, who works for GE Aviation, collaborated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to develop a model for academic engineering programmes to ensure that their graduates are ideally placed to meet the needs of industry. His presentation on 25 April was broadcast live via Collegerama.

 

Doordat op die manier de opleidingen beter met elkaar vergeleken kunnen worden, verwachten ze dat de onderwijskwaliteit zal toenemen. De 27 opleidingen commerciële economie bijvoorbeeld zouden dan allemaal hetzelfde panel van deskundigen over de vloer krijgen.

Momenteel is het onderling vergelijken van hbo-opleidingen minder goed mogelijk, vinden CDA-kamerlid Sander de Rouwe en VVD-kamerlid Anne-Wil Lucas. Zij pleiten voor dezelfde aanpak als in het wetenschappelijk onderwijs. Daar is het wel gebruikelijk dat één commissie alle opleidingen van een bepaalde studie beoordeelt en accrediteert.

Lucas wil dat bij de beoordeling van opleidingen voortaan ook het arbeidsmarktperspectief van hun afgestudeerden wordt meegenomen. “Baankansen en startsalaris zeggen misschien nog wel meer over de kwaliteit van een opleiding dan al die beoordelingsrapporten. Het is bovendien wat ouders het belangrijkst vinden bij de studiekeuze van hun kind: Gaat mijn zoon of dochter hiermee een baan vinden?”

Lucas en De Rouwe zien niets in het plan van PVV en SP om hbo’ers aan het eind van hun studie een landelijk examen te laten afnemen. De Rouwe: “Dat lijkt me niet haalbaar, we willen juist dat opleidingen zich gaan onderscheiden van elkaar. Bovendien kost de invoering van landelijke examens een hoop geld, dat dan niet kan worden uitgegeven aan goed onderwijs.”