Short news
No data from end users of business accounts was leaked during the cyberattack on telecom provider Odido. This means that no staff data or user data belonging to TU Delft employees was affected, the university announced on its intranet.
On Thursday, Odido announced that cybercriminals had gained access to a file containing the details of 6.2 million accounts through a cyberattack. This includes names, addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth and bank account numbers of customers. No passwords, call data or billing information were involved. Customers of Ben, which is part of Odido, may also have been affected.
Some TU Delft employees have been affected via their private subscriptions. TU Delft advises this group to be extra vigilant for phishing attempts or other fraudulent activities. Odido provides advice and information about the leak on this webpage (in Dutch).
The student council of VU University Amsterdam is in crisis due to the conflict surrounding the Vrijmoedige Studentenpartij (VSP). According to reports in newspaper Het Parool, VSP founder Marlon U. has been aggressive and intimidating on campus for years. Among other things, he knocked a student to the ground after the student confronted Marlon U. for singing a Nazi song.
Several student council members refuse to meet with the VSP member who sits on the student council too. Therefore the student council has not met for some time. In order to calm things down, the executive committee of the student council asked that the Marlon U. issue not be discussed “externally”. The party’s supporters interpreted this as a gag order. This led to a great deal of anger and heightened emotions, after which the board decided to resign.
A number of VSP members from Utrecht, the University of Amsterdam and Leiden have now also turned their backs on their far-right party.
On the VU campus, there are protests against the “ineffective” actions of the Executive Board. They want the board to be clearer about how it will act against misconduct.
The VU responds that measures have indeed been taken, in the form of discussions, warnings and a suspension. “Any form of intimidation, discrimination, violence or exclusion is unacceptable”, a spokesperson said.
HOP, Olmo Linthorst
Quantum computers use qubits, which can take on many values and can be zero and one at the same time. The promise is that this enables them to calculate much faster than a conventional computer. Although quantum computers currently often consist of only a handful of interconnected qubits, eventually there will need to be many thousands or even millions. It is important to know how well the individual qubits perform.
That is why researchers at QuTech have now developed a method that allows them to test 1058 qubits at once, in theory. To do this, they built a new type of test chip: QARPET (Qubit-Array Research Platform for Engineering and Testing).
The chip is so compactly woven that under a microscope it resembles a woven carpet, but on a nanoscale.
“When I designed the first layouts, I honestly did not expect them to work,”says Alberto Tosato, who was responsible for the engineering. “It pushes the limits of nanofabrication.” The research is described in Nature Electronics.
A group of employees at the student sports centre at TU Eindhoven have been underpaid for years. The university is going to rectify this and is allocating 750,000 euro for this purpose.
Around fifteen permanent employees and ninety on-call workers at the Eindhoven student sports centre have been underpaid for years. This was revealed by an internal audit conducted by the university.
They were wrongfully denied compensation when they worked unusual hours, such as in the evenings or on weekends. It also emerged that the on-call workers, who were mainly students, were receiving too low an hourly wage.
Back pay
They will now receive this back pay, plus interest. TU Eindhoven will allocate around 750,000 euros for this. “We regret this undesirable situation,” says Patrick Groothuis, vice-chairman of the Executive Board.
The university warns that the recovery process may take several months. The institution no longer has the addresses of some former students; this group is being asked to come forward.
Such administrative errors are rare. In 2018, something similar happened at Radboud University Nijmegen. It turned out that a group of foreign employees had been receiving too little end-of-year bonus and holiday pay for years.
HOP, Naomi Bergshoeff
The new coalition has divided up the ministerial posts. As expected, the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science will go to D66. The Undersecretary will remain a member of the VVD.
D66 leader Rob Jetten will become Prime Minister and VVD member Eelco Heinen is the intended Minister of Finance. State Secretary Sandra Palmen (formerly NSC, now independent) will remain responsible for handling the social benefits scandal.
Other candidates for the new cabinet are not yet known, but informateur Rianne Letschert could well make the move to The Hague, perhaps as D66 Minister of Education. The Maastricht University administrator is appreciated by Jetten and apparently also gets on well with the party leaders of CDA and VVD.
It seems unlikely that former minister Robbert Dijkgraaf will make a comeback for D66. His policy was torpedoed by the Schoof cabinet, and the new coalition also seems to be taking a slightly different direction than he advocated. The current VVD State Secretary for Education is Koen Becking. It is not yet clear whether he will remain in office.
Defense minister from VVD
The ministers of Defense are also important for universities and colleges, as a significant portion of the increased defense budget will be spent on knowledge and innovation. The minister comes from the VVD, while the CDA provides the state secretary.
CDA leader Henri Bontenbal will remain in the House of Representatives. It remains to be seen what VVD leader Dilan Yesilgöz will do. In the past, she was State Secretary for Economic Affairs (2021-2022) and Minister of Justice and Security (2022-2024).
HOP, Bas Belleman
Study programmes are disappearing, lecturers are being laid off and small study groups are turning into massive lectures. This is due to cuts in education funding, says the Dutch National Union of Students (LSVb) in a ‘black book’ presented to the Dutch Parliament on Tuesday.
The new minority coalition of D66, CDA, and VVD has promised to reverse the cuts to education, but the LSV) remains deeply concerned: the damage cannot be undone overnight.
“There is hardly any room to study on campus, courses are disappearing, and education is deteriorating,” says LSVb chair Maaike Krom. The union has collected examples in a ‘black book’. With personal stories from students and teachers, the LSVb hopes to “make the consequences tangible for politicians.”
When teachers leave, they are not replaced. Small study groups become large lectures. Honors programs disappear or are scaled back. Administrative staff are laid off. Workloads are increasing everywhere. Some buildings are forced to close their doors. The introduction week is shortened.
These are just a few of the many consequences of the cutbacks, says Krom. “It’s shocking how quickly the quality of education has deteriorated.” She hopes that the black book will give the Dutch House of Representatives “a push in the right direction.”
And what about the new coalition’s promise to reverse the cuts? “At the moment, it means nothing,” says Krom. “A majority in parliament still has to be achieved.”
HOP, Naomi Bergshoeff
Read more about the cuts to higher education and TU Delft in our dossier.
To celebrate mathematics, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, and Computer Science (EEMCS) is organising a world record attempt on March 3 to form the world’s largest human π symbol.
The record attempt will not take place on Pi Day, which is on March 14 (3-14), but it will be at exactly 3:14 p.m. The current record stands at 2,036 people. That may seem like a lot, but with 26,000 students and more than 7,500 TU Delft employees, it could theoretically be possible.
Following the record attempt, mathematician Hanne Kekkonen (statistics group, EEMCS) will give a Pi lecture.
- Date: Tuesday, March 3, 2026, doors open at 2:45 p.m., official time of record attempt (sharp) 3:14 p.m.
- Location: TU Delft location X, Building 37, Mekelweg 8, 2628 CD Delft, Soccer field 1 (follow the Pi Day signs in the building to get to the soccer field)
- Participants: Anyone who would like to be part of a world record attempt
- Goal: World record for Largest human pi symbol
- Dress code: TU Delft blue (for cohesion in the pi record photos).
“We urge you to respond to this situation with the necessary decisiveness and urgency.” This is what (former) Iranian TU employees and alumni wrote this week to Rianne Letschert, the informateur who led the coalition talks, and the three party leaders who were at the table. The open letter was supported by more than three hundred citizens and was drafted in consultation with Comité Iran Vrij, writes co-initiator Nima Hakim on LinkedIn.
The initiators, including three TU employees, wanted the situation in Iran to be explicitly discussed during the coalition talks. They have not heard anything back, says co-initiator and former TU employee Sara Amiri. On Thursday, it was announced that the initiators’ first concrete demand had been granted: the EU decided to place the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on its list of terrorist organisations. That news is very welcome, says Amiri.
The initiators also want the Dutch ambassador to Iran to be recalled, the government to publicly declare that the Iranian regime will be held accountable for its actions, and the crown prince to be recognised.
Long-term approach
In the coalition agreement presented on Friday afternoon, the parties forming the coalition state that Iran’s undermining influence must be countered with maximum sanctions. A positive and necessary step, says Amiri, but not enough. “There is no long-term approach, maximising support for the Iranian people. At the moment, the focus is on sanctions and security, and too little on human rights and democracy.”
For weeks, Iran has been the scene of large-scale uprisings against the regime, fuelled by economic discontent. The demonstrators are demanding an end to the regime of the Islamic Republic. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is cracking down hard on the protests; estimates of the death toll range from 5,000 to more than 30,000. The situation continues to deteriorate, according to Amiri. “The official number of deaths and detainees continues to rise.”
Thirteen researchers from Dutch knowledge institutions have secured a Proof of Concept grant, the European Research Council (ERC) announced this week during a second award round. Researchers at TU Delft did not receive any grants in this round, but they did manage to obtain three during the first phase.
In total, the ERC has awarded 136 Proof of Concept grants to researchers in 23 countries. The laureates had previously received an ERC research grant and may now use this funding to explore the commercial or societal potential of their research.
Sustainable paracetamol
During the first award phase, announced in July 2025, researchers from the faculties of Applied Sciences (AS), Mechanical Engineering (ME), and Civil Engineering and Geosciences (CEG) were awarded grants.
Professor of Biotechnology Frank Hollmann (AS) received €150,000 for the BioParacetamol project, through which he is working on the sustainable production of paracetamol. Associate Professor Farbod Alijani (Mechanical Engineering) may use the grant to take the first steps towards the commercialisation of innovative accelerometers for autonomous vehicles. Associate Professor Branko Šavija (CEG) will continue work on the Defcrete project, which focuses on formable concrete composites for sustainable infrastructure.
(HOP, NB / Delta, AdB)
Are you a student at TU Delft and do you have an opinion on current topics about student life, studying, the ins and outs of TU Delft in general or your faculty in particular?
Can you argue your opinion well and are you able to do so once every month in no more than 500 words each time? Then you might be our new student columnist!
Want to read some columns? Check out our opinion page.
- You will have a monthly deadline. We will pay you a word rate per published word in the original language of the column.
- Are you interested? Send us a sample column of no more than 500 words in Dutch or English (in Word) before 23 February 2026. In it, answer the questions why you should become our new student columnist, what you would write about and why. We will judge your submission on originality, sharpness and writing style.
- Do you have any questions? Ask Saskia Bonger, editor-in-chief: mailto:s.m.bonger@tudelft.nl.
