On 1 September 2015, Victor van der Chijs, President of the Executive Board of the University of Twente, will take over the chairmanship of the federation of the three universities of technology. His colleague Dirk Jan van den Berg announced his departure from TU Delft this summer.
The 3TU.Federation is very grateful to Dirk Jan van den Berg for all his efforts. For nearly eight years, he has been involved in the developments of the federation aimed at strengthening and clustering technological knowledge. As chairman, he was an excellent leader in the further positioning of the 3TU.Federation, which in recent years has been particularly focused on increasing the number of science and technology graduates. One of the new initiatives recently implemented under his direction is the design of the 3TU.Centre for Engineering Education, which focuses largely on the innovation of engineering education in the Netherlands.
Van der Chijs will continue to pursue the ambitions of Van den Berg. He will work on obtaining new resources from government and the business community with the aim of helping to build on the pool of technology talent in the Netherlands. It is vital that the Netherlands invests more in human capital that contributes towards scientific research, technology and innovation in the Netherlands. In this perspective, the three universities of technology contribute hugely towards realising the Science and Technology Master Plan. Van der Chijs: ‘It is very important for the Netherlands that we provide high-quality education for potential new engineers, equipping them with state-of-the-art laboratories and introducing them to top-level research.’
‘Minister Bussemaker's promise to free up resources for appointing 4,000 more teachers in higher education (1,400 in universities) is a step in the right direction. However, there is more work needed in the science and technology sector. It is necessary to make society more ‘technology minded’. But this requires a joint approach and above all a fundamental investment from government, the business community and knowledge institutions.’
