Bob van Vliet, a design teacher, always waves away the sceptical reactions of students when he asks them to learn to draw and sketch by hand. He firmly believed that it is purely a question of practice. Until he met someone for whom that really wasn’t the case.

For the exchange of arguments in public, reasoned debate, you’re in the wrong place at TU Delft, writes columnist Bob van Vliet. This is starting to make him cynical.

The academic community at TU Delft does not get enough practice in carrying out critical, well-argued and respectful debates. Academic freedom is thus wasting away, argues columnist Bob van Vliet. He calls on professors and others in high positions to take the lead.

More than elsewhere at TU Delft, Architecture and the Built Environment understands what it means to have an academic attitude towards your discipline, Bob van Vliet discovered. This also implies that you explore things that are completely unrealistic in today’s society.

Columnist Bob van Vliet considers a statement by Executive Board Chair, Tim van der Hagen, so damaging that he is at a loss for how to write about it.

Columnist Bob van Vliet believes that deans and directors should take a more active part in the public debate about controversial issues.

Columnist Bob van Vliet has been named the Most Sustainable Teacher of 2023. While happy, he is also uncomfortable with this recognition of his teaching and activism.

However wonderful technology is, it cannot do magic and solve every problem, says Bob van Vliet. He looks at limitations in his lessons – even if only during the breaks.

In discussions about the need for climate education, something about the reactions of many colleagues strikes Bob van Vliet. Not surprising, but to him worrying.

Bob van Vliet is annoyed by the stance of the Executive Board on the wishes of a pressure group to stop financing from the fossil fuel industry.

TU Delft should be pleased when students are critical and socially aware rather than regret it when they take action, argues Bob van Vliet.

If TU Delft can push electives on artificial intelligence and entrepreneurship, why does it not do so for climate education, wonders columnist Bob van Vliet.

Pro tip for anyone on the brink of climate depression: do not read Andreas Malm’s How to Blow Up a Pipeline shortly after watching Bo Burnham’s Inside.

In light of the idea that public discussion and public criticism belongs to public institutions, Bob van Vliet likes to take others to task. But does it help?

This is Monique van der Veen’s last column. Now that Dap Hartmann will return to Delta as a columnist next year, she feels that she has come full circle.

Among the tens of thousands of TU Delft students, why does not even one attach themself to something demanding the defossilisation of the curriculum, wonders Bob van Vliet.

A ‘consultation round’ on a far reaching decision that seems to have already been taken, is a missed opportunity, says Bob van Vliet. He detects resignation and cynicism.

Discussions about students often lead to generalisations about ‘students today’ and what is wrong with the new generation. Bob van Vliet has issues with this.

Teaching students to reflect is a good initiative, but it is a different kind of reflection than what Bob van Vliet hoped for. He has mixed feelings.

Columnist Bob van Vliet faces up to his own failures as a teacher. “Students are not empty vessels. They are humans. Each one is a different human.”

The pressure on teachers and researchers at universities is not an individual personal experience, but a structural problem. Acknowledge that, writes Bob van Vliet.

A new committee is working on a new vision of education, keeping the experiences of the pandemic in mind. Who will be on the committee? Columnist Bob van Vliet.

Politicians are misusing scientific findings by presenting them as necessary measures, argues Monique van der Veen. This is affecting public confidence.

Why do we give grades, wonders columnist Bob van Vliet. The more he thinks about it, the fewer good reasons he sees.

Having a different mother tongue is a challenge. Columnist Claudia Werker explains how you can support colleagues who have different mother tongues.

Columnist Bob van Vliet is pretty sure that his English is above average. But he also realises that he has far less nuance at his disposal in English.

Bob van Vliet recognises that teaching is personal and dependent on the interaction between teacher and student. This cannot be standardised.

TU Delft’s mission is ‘Creating impact for a better society’. But what is ‘better’ and for whom? Given its history, columnist Bob van Vliet believes more reflection is needed.

Columnist Bob van Vliet is not so keen on returning to physical lectures and feels guilty about it. “For big groups I can do my thing better online.”

That the education standard was sometimes better last year was not because of fashionable digital means, but because of good teachers, writes columnist Bob van Vliet.

It took 12 years’ worth of temporary contracts before columnist Bob van Vliet was given a permanent position at TU Delft. He hopes for better things for his peers.

Columnist Bob van Vliet dislikes the lack of transparency surrounding TU Delft’s Supervisory Board. He comes to a far-reaching conclusion.

Columnist Bob van Vliet would rather decide himself what software and interfaces should do instead of having to go with what the tech giants think. He is not the only one.

Bob van Vliet prefers to teach in spaces that he can arrange to his liking. The same goes for online education. But it’s not that simple.

The Netherlands or China? Where is personal development really included in technical studies? Bob van Vliet draws inspiration from the list of subjects of Chinese students.

Writing this column was difficult for Bob van Vliet. The corona crisis is starting to take its toll. “It’s good to admit every once in a while that it’s all a bit too much.”

Monique van der Veen wonders where TU Delft stands on the matter of endorsing free academic debate. Our Code of Conduct should define behaviour more precise, she suggests.

Last week when I got into the elevator at the Faculty, as the doors were closing behind me, I could just overhear from the hallway: ‘Hey, cool! That was Bob in real life!’

Was the game with which TU Delft opened the academic year a secret attempt at radical satire? Where is the debate at this overworked university, asks columnist Bob van Vliet.

Bob van Vliet feels more like an employee at a large company than a lecturer at a university. The centrally taken decisions of the cvb do not give him a sense of ‘community’.

Handing out grades can be tricky. At times the indignation of a student or project group makes Bob van Vliet doubt his own judgement.

Bob van Vliet has had enough. He misses the personal contact with his students and wonders if digital alternatives for everything will be possible.

In a crisis you grab the first tools available. But Bob van Vliet watches with concern how enthusiastically everyone is embracing software from data hungry companies.

De manier waarop docenten de cijfers voor een groot ontwerpvak bepalen is elk jaar een recept voor een fantastische sessie. Wat als we dat filmen en online zetten?

Bob van Vliet heeft een nieuwe held: Ingrid Robeyns. De voorvrouw van WOinActie kwam naar Delft om de universiteit op haar verantwoordelijkheid te wijzen.

Our columnist Bob van Vliet believes that emphasising diversity and its supposed advantages distracts from the more fundamental values that universities should uphold.

The Nashville discussion (or lack of it) shows that public and well-argued debate is hard to find at TU Delft, columnist Bob van Vliet writes.

Not guilt, but awareness and openness. According to Bob van Vliet, teacher at the Faculty of 3mE, this is necessary to stop negative cultural stereotypes and and to help create a more inclusive campus. He wrote this letter.