You can vote for these four student parties on 14 and 15 May

Delta sent all the party candidates the same list of questions. Erfan Mozafari, candidate for the new TU ResQ party, did not respond. His views are therefore not included in the article below. The questions were open questions about the positions of the parties on themes that we selected based on discussions with the various student council parties, students and the Delta Editorial Office.

Cutbacks

Guuske Kouwenhoven, ORAS: “The cutbacks must not be at the expense of the quality of education and sustainability initiatives. Every student must be able to serve on a committee or board, join a Dream Team, or do an internship. If cutbacks have to be made, they should be on furnishing, catering and electricity.”

Koos Meesters, Dé Partij: “We see the need to economise as an opportunity to tackle longstanding organisational problems. We see TU Delft emerging stronger from this period through the strengthening of public-private partnerships and the reorganisation of the management.”

Sophia de Gaay Fortman, Lijst Bèta: “We think it is irresponsible that plans are still being made to expand to Rotterdam while these cutbacks are being made. We need to concentrate on the quality of education here so that students can work on a sustainable future and problems such as climate change.”

Social safety

Dé Partij: “If you would now ask whether TU Delft is socially safe or not, we are firmly on the not side. The organisation remains hierarchical. This brings about no feeling of responsibility and a change in culture is not happening.”

ORAS: “We are happy that the reporting point for students is open. Still, we call for greater attention to be paid to the relationship of dependency between students and their supervisors in final projects.”

Lijst Bèta: “Thanks to our tireless efforts, there is finally a reporting point. It’s a step in the right direction. But we still see that the communication to students on this subject can be a lot better.”

Demonstrations on campus

ORAS: “Demonstrating is a basic right and is always allowed as long as it is peaceful and nothing is damaged. If restrictions are set, they have to be because of necessity and be transparent. TU Delft may intervene in case of disturbances or if the education is seriously disrupted.”

Lijst Bèta: ‘No violence may occur in this safe environment and peaceful protests are handled with understanding’

Lijst Bèta: “Everyone is entitled to freedom of expression, including students. We need to ensure a safe environment in which all voices on campus are heard. No violence may occur in this safe environment and peaceful protests are handled with understanding.”

Dé Partij: “TU Delft must adhere to the constitution which is very clear. Legislation has already set boundaries on demonstrations so TU Delft does not need to further expand them. We ourselves would not choose to block doors, but everyone is free to do so if they wish.”

Military partnership

Lijst Bèta: “We are critical about partnerships with the Ministry of Defence, but understand that TU Delft is moving more in that direction given current threats and cutbacks on education. The precondition is that TU Delft remains independent and transparent about defence projects. Further, ethical issues need to be discussed thoroughly, students need to be informed in advance, and be free to choose other projects.”

Dé Partij: “The most important aspect is that TU Delft communicates openly and transparently about its partnerships with the Ministry of Defence. That a technical university cooperates with defence bodies is part of its societal role. Technological advances are essential in protecting our freedoms.”

ORAS: “We see opportunities for collaboration such as in innovative research, knowledge exchange and career opportunities. That said, we emphasise the importance of independence in terms of financing, academic freedom, and ethical debates.”

Extracurricular development

Dé Partij: “Everyone is proud of TU Delft students’ efforts in Dream Teams, student associations and other initiatives. TU Delft needs to give them greater support. The RPF months should be increased by at least 40% and indexed every year. Also make serving on boards tuition fee free. If the support is there, the students will do the rest.”

Oras: ‘We encourage to take active roles in student associations, Dream Teams, minors and internships here or abroad, and we believe that TU Delft should provide better support’

ORAS: “We are there for the students who want to do more than just study. We encourage them to take active roles in student associations, Dream Teams, minors and internships here or abroad, and we believe that TU Delft should provide better support through a higher Studentenondersteuningsfonds (StOF, previously the Profileringsfonds or student financial support fund) and make serving on boards tuition fee free.

Lijst Bèta: “We hear from students who want to develop themselves further alongside their studies that the study pressure is too high. Bèta addresses this by making it mandatory that student well-being is included in every decision taken so that the study pressure drops.”

International students

Dé Partij: “We argue for percentage caps on numerus fixus degree programmes: 70%-80% national, 20%-30% EEA, 5%-10% non EEA. Education then remains accessible, social mobility is safeguarded, and diversity is kept. This can be done through Dutch language or dual language tracks with separate numeri fixi so that the international inflow does not come at the cost of Dutch students. Introducing this gradually and continued efforts to create an inclusive environment are essential.”

ORAS: “We welcome international students to TU Delft and believe that it is the job of TU Delft to keep the inflow manageable. We are the founders of InterDelft (the umbrella association for international student associations) and also work for more mixed student houses.”

Lijst Bèta: “We welcome everybody who is up to studying here. Every person is equal, a right which these days seems to need to be fought for. We can learn a lot from students from different backgrounds, and this can be fun and useful. We uphold top quality education with expertise from around the world.”

Transparent decision-making

ORAS: “The decision-making process needs to be more transparent. Many documents are available, but they are hard to find and read. This makes it hard for students to know what is going on, how they can exert influence, and the effects of certain decisions on students.”

Lijst Bèta: “It could be a lot better. A lot of decision-making is about students and we could easily be kept informed. Greater transparency and better communications through one clear channel such as Brightspace would lead to more involved students which in turn would mean that we can jointly further improve the education and the campus.”

Dé Partij: ‘At the moment TU Delft is absolutely not open about things, including to us as the Student Council’

Dé Partij: “Transparency has been our core value since our founding. At the moment TU Delft is absolutely not open about things, including to us as the Student Council. We would like to see all TU Delft decisions be underpinned and published on one centralised page. We could then start a discussion and debate about the future of TU Delft.”

With the cooperation of Kim Bakker