Who wants to be an engineer-manager? Many of the TU’s Dutch and foreign students, apparently, making Technology, Policy and Management (TPM) one of the the TU’s hottest faculties and a hotbed of activity, as the faculty prepares its Ba-Ma program and launches a new international course.
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This summer the TU’s new five-year Ba-Ma (BSc-MSc) programs will begin. Ba-Ma students will receive a BSc degree after completing the program’s first three years, and a MSc degree (taught in English) after the final two years. Ba-Ma promises to be revolutionary, providing greater academic flexibility: students can continue their MSc. studies at different faculties within the TU, or at other Dutch and foreign universities with comparable programs.
Technology, Policy and Management (TPM) is one faculty that expects to feel the brunt of this greater influx and movement of Dutch and foreign students, as a new breed of upwardly mobile TU engineers want to acquire managerial and entrepreneurial skills.
Although all TU faculties will be ready for the Ba-Ma this year, TPM has delayed its full Ba-Ma conversion until next year. “In 1992, TPM began with a 4-year program and only recently, in 2000, have we changed to 5-year program,” says Dr. Pieter Bots, TPM’s Director of Education. “We therefore don’t have students who can receive BSc diplomas directly this year. Our first 3 years will have been transformed into a 3-years BSc program next year and we will be issuing our first BSc diploma in August 2003”.
TPM’s Ba-Ma’s launch delay means the faculty has time to thoroughly prepare its staff and students for Ba-Ma’s impact, which is expected to be big. The MSc program’s English-language requirement could be problematic for teachers and students with a poor grasp of English. Anticipating this, the faculty will provide English courses for those needing help. TPM is also preparing strategies and criteria for adapting the two-year MSc program. “We need to establish criteria for exchanging students in the MSc program with other universities,” Bots says. “But this won’t be easy, because our faculty is the only multi-disciplinary study focusing on inter-organizational issues in the Netherlands.”
Variant
Since 1998, TPM has offered a two-year international MSc program in System Engineering, Policy Analysis and Management (SEPAM). Will Ba-Ma adversely affect TPM’s existing SEPAM program? Bots believes the differences between Ba-Ma and the SEPAM MSc programs need to be refocused and underlined. “We have two profiles: multi-disciplinary bachelors for Ba-Ma’s BSc segment and mono-disciplinary technical BSc from outside the faculty,” Bots says. “Consequently, the MSc studies for Ba-Ma and our International MSc should be different”. Bots doesn’t advise Ba-Ma students who have completed the BSc segment to switch to the International MSc: “Interchanging is unwise because the two MSc programs require different BSc backgrounds. Students who follow Ba-Ma should stick to it”.
Bots admits that the outputs of the regular and international MSc programs will be different. MSc graduates from international MSc programs will not have the same multi-interdisciplinary skills as those from regular Ba-Ma programs. Despite this difference, however, the faculty considers the two programs as variants and still aims to produce the same qualification level of graduates from both.
This year TPM is also launching a new International MSc program: Management of Technology (MoT), offering courses in management of technology, innovation and entrepeneurship. TPM expects MoT to attract both Dutch students from outside the faculty and abroad, aiming for a 50-50 split between foreign and Dutch students.
Some first-year International SEPAM students have already inquired about the possibility of switching to MoT in their second year. Bots says this can’t be done, because SEPAM and MoT are separate programs: “It would be difficult to do so both in terms of practicality and content, because thetwo International MSc programs have a different focus. In future, SEPAM will focus more on policy design, governance and especially policy modeling, while MoT will concentrate on management of technology. ” Prospective students for the International MSc programs will have to select between SEPAM and MoT from the start.
Who wants to be an engineer-manager? Many of the TU’s Dutch and foreign students, apparently, making Technology, Policy and Management (TPM) one of the the TU’s hottest faculties and a hotbed of activity, as the faculty prepares its Ba-Ma program and launches a new international course.
This summer the TU’s new five-year Ba-Ma (BSc-MSc) programs will begin. Ba-Ma students will receive a BSc degree after completing the program’s first three years, and a MSc degree (taught in English) after the final two years. Ba-Ma promises to be revolutionary, providing greater academic flexibility: students can continue their MSc. studies at different faculties within the TU, or at other Dutch and foreign universities with comparable programs.
Technology, Policy and Management (TPM) is one faculty that expects to feel the brunt of this greater influx and movement of Dutch and foreign students, as a new breed of upwardly mobile TU engineers want to acquire managerial and entrepreneurial skills.
Although all TU faculties will be ready for the Ba-Ma this year, TPM has delayed its full Ba-Ma conversion until next year. “In 1992, TPM began with a 4-year program and only recently, in 2000, have we changed to 5-year program,” says Dr. Pieter Bots, TPM’s Director of Education. “We therefore don’t have students who can receive BSc diplomas directly this year. Our first 3 years will have been transformed into a 3-years BSc program next year and we will be issuing our first BSc diploma in August 2003”.
TPM’s Ba-Ma’s launch delay means the faculty has time to thoroughly prepare its staff and students for Ba-Ma’s impact, which is expected to be big. The MSc program’s English-language requirement could be problematic for teachers and students with a poor grasp of English. Anticipating this, the faculty will provide English courses for those needing help. TPM is also preparing strategies and criteria for adapting the two-year MSc program. “We need to establish criteria for exchanging students in the MSc program with other universities,” Bots says. “But this won’t be easy, because our faculty is the only multi-disciplinary study focusing on inter-organizational issues in the Netherlands.”
Variant
Since 1998, TPM has offered a two-year international MSc program in System Engineering, Policy Analysis and Management (SEPAM). Will Ba-Ma adversely affect TPM’s existing SEPAM program? Bots believes the differences between Ba-Ma and the SEPAM MSc programs need to be refocused and underlined. “We have two profiles: multi-disciplinary bachelors for Ba-Ma’s BSc segment and mono-disciplinary technical BSc from outside the faculty,” Bots says. “Consequently, the MSc studies for Ba-Ma and our International MSc should be different”. Bots doesn’t advise Ba-Ma students who have completed the BSc segment to switch to the International MSc: “Interchanging is unwise because the two MSc programs require different BSc backgrounds. Students who follow Ba-Ma should stick to it”.
Bots admits that the outputs of the regular and international MSc programs will be different. MSc graduates from international MSc programs will not have the same multi-interdisciplinary skills as those from regular Ba-Ma programs. Despite this difference, however, the faculty considers the two programs as variants and still aims to produce the same qualification level of graduates from both.
This year TPM is also launching a new International MSc program: Management of Technology (MoT), offering courses in management of technology, innovation and entrepeneurship. TPM expects MoT to attract both Dutch students from outside the faculty and abroad, aiming for a 50-50 split between foreign and Dutch students.
Some first-year International SEPAM students have already inquired about the possibility of switching to MoT in their second year. Bots says this can’t be done, because SEPAM and MoT are separate programs: “It would be difficult to do so both in terms of practicality and content, because thetwo International MSc programs have a different focus. In future, SEPAM will focus more on policy design, governance and especially policy modeling, while MoT will concentrate on management of technology. ” Prospective students for the International MSc programs will have to select between SEPAM and MoT from the start.
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