In its report about social safety at TU Delft, the Inspectorate of Education was critical about the role of the Supervisory Board. Outgoing Minister of Education Dijkgraaf subsequently had several meetings with the Supervisory Board and set out four points of attention in a letter. In this interview, the Board’s Chair, Tijo Collot d’Escury, responds on behalf of the full Supervisory Board.
During a consultation meeting with the Executive Board (cvb), the local unions at TU Delft repeated their earlier viewpoints and recommendations for increasing social safety at TU Delft. Cvb-member Marien van der Meer said that she would consider them. She also asked for trust.
Delta republished an investigative article about the lack of social safety at the Innovation and Impact Centre today. It was originally published on 15 April but the Editorial Office, under protest, removed it later that day. Saskia Bonger, Editor in Chief, explains the backgrounds behind the republishing in this article. Everything associated with it is highly unusual. This also goes for the explanation that, as an exception, is more personal in tone. But this is unavoidable if you yourself are part of the news.
The Innovation & Impact Centre has set up a social safety work group to help ‘restore balance’, according to the chair Jan Schiereck. The Centre’s employees were negatively affected by the way the organisation handled the departure of their director. “We want to ensure that everyone feels senang (happy) again.”
The Supervisory Board needs to ‘keep an eye on the administrative relationships’ during the process of improving social safety at TU Delft. Minister of Education Dijkgraaf wrote this in a letter to the Supervisory Board that was made public this week.
The CNV, FNV, AOb and FBZ trade unions are ‘livid about the lack of social safety at TU Delft’. They note that there are still a lot of unanswered questions about the action plan that is intended to improve the situation. They also say that they are receiving dozens of comments from concerned employees after an investigative article appeared in the Algemeen Dagblad (AD) newspaper.
Delta was awarded two prizes for the best journalistic work within higher education media on 6 June. Delta received the so-called Kring Awards for an investigative story on social unsafety at the Innovation & Impact Centre (I&IC) that caused much controversy in April and an interview with planetary researcher Daphne Stam, who left TU Delft out of discontent.
TU Delft does not comply with the Work and Care Act. It does take measures to address heavy workload and undesirable behaviour, but these are rarely based on an analysis of the problems. There is also no information on their effectiveness. In the meantime, 37% of the employees are at a higher risk of a burnout. The time in which to deal with these issues systematically is coming to an end.
Delft is number 11 on the Dutch Student Union (LSVb) ranking of student room cities. That is down four places from a year earlier. According to the student union, Delft has dropped mainly due to the relatively large price increases for student rooms in Delft. According to the LSVb, the average rent was 504.49 euros,
