Roland Berger will not give financial advice about Rotterdam Campus

This was announced by the TU Delft | Campus Rotterdam project organisation. Like PWC, Roland Berger had bid for the tender, but the organisation behind the project thinks that its competitor Deloitte had the best papers. The evaluation was done by staff of TU Delft and the municipality of Rotterdam.

Stepping down

This decision is newsworthy as Tijo Collot d’Escury, managing partner at Roland Berger, announced on 28 February 2024 that he would step down as Chair of TU Delft’s Supervisory Board. The reason was the forthcoming tender for the financing of Rotterdam Campus about which Roland Berger had been informed. Collot d’Escury said that he wanted to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest when his consultancy firm would bid in the tender.

It later transpired that in doing so, he was following in the footsteps of another Roland Berger partner. They stepped out of the Board of the Delft University Fund in 2024 after about two years of service to also avoid ‘any appearance of a conflict of interest’. That partner had been at the birth of convergence, the academic partnership between TU Delft, Erasmus MC and Erasmus University, and thus also of Rotterdam Campus.

Funding goals

The Development Plan states that EUR 4.8 billion is needed to create the TU Delft campus in Rotterdam. Half that money needs to come from different government layers and companies (and the rest from tuition fees and research carried out on behalf of third parties). Deloitte will check for which parts binding agreements need to be made, and for which parts not or not yet. The consultancy firm will also help meet these financing goals.

There is not much time for this. The project organisation wants to have the financial part of the Development Plan in place before 1 September. The execution will start in parallel as soon as possible.

Risk limitation

It will be a long time before there really is a TU Delft campus in Rotterdam. TU Delft had talked about opening a branch in Rotterdam previously, but along the way the decision was taken to start small. After a two year delay, the first degree programme will start in 2027. The idea is to expand the campus in Rotterdam bit by bit from there to limit financial risks.

While many TU Delft staff members and others, such as the trade unions, have their doubts about the plans, the Executive Board sees this differently. Executive Board Chair and Rector Magnificus Tim van der Hagen calls the Rotterdam Campus a lifeline. “If the external financing is forthcoming, we will need people there. And if we have to reduce our activities here, the people could perhaps work there as employees of TU Delft.”