Short news
Ethics professor Sabine Roeser will be taking over duties from Dean Aukje Hassoldt of Technology, Policy and Management (TPM) in mid-November. She will do so in her position as deputy dean. According to a spokesperson, there is no need to appoint an interim dean as the vacancy for dean TBM can be published soon. Rector magnificus Tim van der Hagen is currently drafting the profile, partly based on a draft from the faculty’s management team.
The spokesperson assumes that the search for a successor will be successful. This would be a break with the past. Before Hassoldt was brought in in 2019, TPM had had four different (interim) deans in four years. But the faculty is in a better position now, according to the spokesperson. Rector Van der Hagen confirmed this on intranet, where he expressed his thanks for Hassoldt’s ‘energy and dedication’. ‘The faculty is in an excellent position and she can hand over TPM with confidence.’
‘Boost the bridge’
The Executive Board will ultimately decide on the appointment of the new dean, following advice from an appointment advisory committee. Then, that proposed decision is discussed with the local Workers Council (odc) and the Faculty Student Council.
Aukje Hassoldt is stepping down from her second term as TPM dean for a new job as dean of the Rotterdam School of Management at Erasmus University (EUR). For Van der Hagen, this is not a farewell, he says on intranet. According to him, the move will instead ‘boost the bridge’ between TU and EUR. Between the two organisations, the bond should become increasingly close due to TU Delft’s plans for a Campus Rotterdam. Van der Hagen reports that it is being investigated how Hassoldt can remain involved with TU Delft.
Sabine Roeser’s current positions include department chair of the Values, Technology and Innovation department. A replacement will temporarily take over the tasks involved, but details are not yet known.
For approving a bachelor’s degree program in osteopathy, regulator NVAO received the Meester Kackadoris award Saturday from the Association against Quackery. The NVAO (Dutch-Flemish Accreditation Organisation) monitors the quality of higher education in the Netherlands and Flanders.
Without approval from the NVAO, the private osteopathy training would not be allowed to award a recognised bachelor’s degree. But that approval has come.
A panel of two osteopaths, an educationalist and a medical student gave a positive recommendation and the NVAO has adopted it. Training at the private Thim University of Applied Sciences costs 9,900 euros per year. Graduates receive the title bachelor of science.
Ministry of Defense
NVAO president Arnold Jonk did not come to collect the award, but gave a written response to the association. The NVAO looks at education, but not at the “substantive merits” of programs, he explained.
The satirical award goes to people or agencies that promote quackery when they should know better. So quacks are not eligible. Other contenders this year were physician federation KNMG and the Ministry of Defense. (HOP, BB)
Master’s students Sibel Gökbekir (Technology, Policy & Management), TJ Rivera (Architecture and the Built Environment) and Pravesha Ramsundersingh (Electrical Engineering, Mathematics & Computer Science) have been nominated for an ECHO Award in the STEM category.
The ECHO Awards are presented annually by the Center for Diversity Policy with the aim of highlighting the social contributions of students from non-western backgrounds.
Winners receive a fully covered Summercourse at the University of California (UCLA). Last year, master’s student Emin Batman (Architecture and the Built Environment) won the prize in the same category.
On 5 and 6 October 2024, public activities will be held across the country to raise awareness on science and technology. You won’t see much of this on TU Delft campus.
From TU Delft, a student team and the TU Delft Science Centre will take part in activities organised by the 4TU federation at the weekend. Only they will not do so in Delft but instead in and around the AMS Institute buildings in Amsterdam and in Zoetermeer.
On Saturday, the Delft Hyperloop team will host a workshop on magnetic levitation (which will one day allow the Hyperloop to float through long vacuum tubes).
As part of the Science Centre on Tour programme, the TU Delft Science Centre will give two topics on circularity in Amsterdam: repairing electronic devices and designing jeans sustainably. In addition, in Zoetermeer the TU Delft Science Centre will give demonstrations on floating robots and cycling with VR (virtual reality) glasses.
- You can find the programme on the Weekend of Science here. (in Dutch)
The cabinet wants more attention to education and research ‘focused on what the Netherlands needs’ in higher education, the King of the Netherlands just said in the so-called Speech from the Throne.
After phrases on migration, defense and agriculture, the speech also addressed higher education. “In this, sharp choices are needed, both for substantive and financial reasons,” King Willem-Alexander said.
Dutch
“One of those choices is to reduce the number of foreign students and make Dutch the norm again in higher education,” he declared. Earlier, he briefly mentioned student migration as a problem, among other forms of migration.
This was all. The cabinet previously announced sharp budget cuts to education and research. By comparison, in the last edition of the Throne Speech, equal opportunities, discrimination and the mental well-being of young people came up. The year before that, major investments in secondary and higher education and science were announced to provide “peace and quiet.”
The king does not write the Speech from the Throne himself. The cabinet does.
HOP, Bas Belleman
The Speech from the Throne
Every year on the third Tuesday in September – known as Prinsjesdag – the King or Queen of the Netherlands delivers the Throne Speech. In it the government announces its plans from the upcoming year. Among those present at the deliverance are the ministers, members of the parliament and the royal family. (Delta, KB)
Commotion at the Mekelweg Monday evening: an excavator landed on its side there around five in the afternoon. It took about an hour and a half before the vehicle was upright again.
The cause was a maneuvering error by the driver, who remained unharmed. However, the excavator did get damaged, according to the Metropolitan Region of Rotterdam The Hague, client of the construction of the tram line for which the excavator was used.
The accident happened near the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science. The bicycle bridge near the faculty was closed for some time. At the same time, at the faculty a welcome barbecue of the Electrotechnische Vereeniging, the study association of Electrical Engineering, took place.
Many spectators were the result: with a beer and a plate of food in hand, students came out to see how the excavator was hoisted back up by several cranes. Around 6:30 p.m., the vehicle was back on its feet.
The excavator is part of the arsenal of vehicles being used in the construction of the new tram line across campus. Executor of that project is the construction company Dura Vermeer.
Addition 17-9-2024 16:02: after the response of the Metropole Region Rotterdam The Hague, the second alinea was added.
- Also read our reconstruction of the events around tram 19: Waiting for the tram.
The reintroduction of the basic grant has slightly improved the financial situation of students, according to Nibud. As a result, parents are less likely to help pay for their children’s studies.
The situation of universities of applied sciences, and university students has improved slightly over the past three years. Fewer students have payment plans and they borrow less often from DUO or their parents. However, many students do have a part-time job; 90% work or have a paid internship, earning an average of EUR 560 per month.
Now that the basic grant is back, only 50% of the parents contribute financially, compared to 70% in 2021. Still, 60% of students say they make ends meet ‘easily’, although 10% find it ‘very difficult’.
Students living away from home, for instance, spend a lot of money on renting a room or flat. On average, it costs them about 40% of their income. Rising housing prices will not make things easier in the coming period, Nibud warns.
Side note
Student organisation ISO points out that many students living away from home received extra money last academic year, during the Nibud survey, because of inflation. Until 1 September, their monthly basic grant was EUR 164 higher. With that gone, financial insecurity among students is rising again, the ISO fears. (HOP, OL)
Despite the fact that the Netherlands is already under-investing in research and development (R&D), Education Minister Bruins did not want to conclude in the Lower House on Thursday that the Netherlands will sink even further due to future budget cuts.
During Bruins’ first debate in the Lower House, in preparation for an upcoming European consultation, the GroenLinks-PvdA party asked the Minister how the Netherlands was going to meet the international R&D standard of three per cent of gross domestic product now that the government is imposing cuts.
The Netherlands is nowhere near meeting that standard, the Rathenau Institute reported just before the summer. With a proposed €1 billion cut in higher education, that does not seem to be getting any better. Bruins acknowledged that cuts are being made, but he did not want to conclude that the Netherlands will definitely not meet the standard. ‘Even with headwinds you have to keep rowing and maybe a bit harder,’ he said.
After the council of ministers on Friday 13 September, the so-called coalition programme will come out and on Tuesday 17 September, on Prinsjesdag, the cabinet will present the budget for 2025.
HOP, Olmo Linthorst
Dutch researchers have won two Ig Nobel prizes on Thursday night, the annual awards for scientific research that makes you laugh first and think second.
Both prizes went to researchers from the University of Amsterdam. For the first prize-winning experiment, scientists tossed a coin 350,757 times: did it turn heads or tails? In almost 51 percent of cases, the coin landed on the same side it started on, which is just slightly different from the expected 50 percent.
The second prize-winning research deals with drunken and sober worms as models for the ‘behaviour’ of active polymers. Length appears to matter less than activity, is one of the results.
Cat on a cow
Besides these Dutch contributions, other unique research was also awarded. A study on placebos, for instance, showed that fake drugs prove more effective when they hurt. And if you have nothing to do you can always put a cat on the back of a cow and pop a paper bag. That’s an experiment from 1941 to see if milk then comes out of the udders.
The winners received 10,000 billion Zimbabwe dollars, a symbolic prize worth about 40 cents. The amount was handed in fake notes because the currency no longer exists. (HOP, BB)
Actually, there were two petitions against the fine for delayed students. One was from opposition party GroenLinks-PvdA, the other from a coalition of the National Union of Students, FNV Young & United, broadcaster BNNVARA and news platform De Marker. The signatures of the two petitions were combined.
Even the youth organisations of government parties VVD and NSC oppose the long-study fine that students will soon face if they are more than a year out of their bachelor’s or master’s programme. Colleges and universities are also adamantly opposed to the introduction.
On Friday 13 September, the cabinet will announce its coalition programme. There are no signs yet that the plan for the langstudeerboete will be withdrawn.
HOP, Hein Cuppen
