Social safety actions: looking forward

The first of September 2025 marks one-and-a-half years since the Education Inspectorate’s report on TU Delft’s social safety was made public. Since then, the Executive Board and TU Delft at large have put together a plan for change, which includes the creation of the social safety sounding board and the social safety website, the Mindlab performances, and other initiatives.

However, improving social safety at TU Delft requires a culture change. This is a long-term process that needs continuous effort and monitoring. The Board of the Delft Young Academy has been closely following the progress of the efforts towards making TU Delft a safer place for everyone.

In this position paper, we share our analysis of the success of these policies so far and highlight the gaps that still need to be addressed.

The lack of social safety is a structural social problem in any organisation, but especially so at universities and for early career academics. Young academics come to TU Delft full of ambition and drive, but face a culture where the work pressure is very high, there is much competition, and there is little time, opportunity and space to openly discuss general well-being. Furthermore, being at the start of their academic careers, their career prospects often depend on decisions made by their supervisors or the career development committee.

Over the past year, TU Delft has made significant progress in promoting social safety. A dedicated Social Safety website has been launched, serving as a central platform for support and activities.

Further, Mindlab performances sparked meaningful conversations in TU Delft’s internal networks, and a new training course on Leadership and Social Safety is being offered to managers at TU Delft. The process of revising the new Code of Conduct was recently initiated, inviting dialogue across the campus community. Procedures for reporting and contacting ombudspersons, confidential advisors, and other relevant roles or departments have been established. These initiatives collectively raised awareness and helped create a more socially safe organisational environment.

The question of how to convert the unconverted remains a challenge

Although promising, these actions are only the building blocks towards achieving complete social safety. It remains unclear how the insights gained and lessons learned from events like the Mindlab theatre play will be translated into a long-term strategy and concrete action to secure social safety on campus.

The optional nature of most of the actions also hinders reaching the entire community, and the question of how to convert the unconverted remains a challenge. In addition, there are barriers for diverse members of the community to be part of the social safety debate. Addressing cultural and language gaps through easier access to the actions of the sounding board and guaranteeing accessibility of social safety resources (documents, podcasts etc.) in English would be practical steps towards greater inclusivity and effectiveness. In general, it is important to keep a positive yet critical mindset towards improving social safety. Conversations built on a predominantly pessimistic perspective are tiring. To sustain and stimulate engagement in social safety discussions, we encourage a multi-perspective approach that recognises challenges while actively exploring solutions and opportunities for growth.

We expect a solid long-term strategy with clear milestones over the coming years

Seeing the positive steps towards a more socially safe TU Delft coupled with ongoing challenges make it difficult to evaluate if we are on the right track and predict future institution-wide developments.

We expect a solid long-term strategy with clear milestones over the coming years. Key priorities include improving accountability, accessibility and ensuring more frequent input from the wider TU Delft community at all levels. It is especially important to not lose sight of social safety in these turbulent times of financial challenges.

By extension, we also look forward to a leadership vision on the topic of social safety and the roadmap that projects the steps to be taken by the new Executive Board starting in 2026. The University Integrity Office and the Sounding Board on Social Safety should closely monitor these developments in the context of social safety and keep the community fully informed. The Delft Young Academy Board will continue to engage with advances on social safety and advocate for early career academics.