Educational reforms and governance

Application for consent University Council about new educational model postponed until mid-2012

On 21 December last, the University Council announced that based on the documents under consideration it is not yet able to approve the plans for a new bachelor education model. The Executive Board has withdrawn the application for consent and will continue fleshing out the plans in order to answer the questions of the University Council.

The intended quality improvement and improved efficiency have the highest priority for the UT. This is emphasised once again by the invitation of the State Secretary for Education, Culture and Science to arrive, within the context of the Outline Agreement, at performance agreements for the improvement of the quality and efficiency. Part of the government funding will be made dependent on realising the agreements. This will not be possible without far-reaching measures in education.

The questions and points for attention of the University Council will be taken into account in the further design process. Several members of the University Council have asked for an interim ‘go – no go moment’ on 1 March. This is too early for the Executive Board. In mid-2012 the application for consent will be put to the University Council for the second time.

Organisational set-up of all educational projects

In addition to plans for an educational model for the Bachelor programmes, several other educational projects are scheduled. We are planning to introduce a University College; currently efforts are being made as to the positioning and quality of the Master programmes, and the Twente Graduate School is to be further developed. Meanwhile, the preparations for the institutional audit that has to take place in 2013 are in full motion and more efficient methods of support of the educational organisation are being examined.

These projects are all interrelated and much depends on all these projects. Therefore it is important that they are effectively and integrally directed. In order to clearly see and monitor the progress and where necessary provide additional steering, the Executive Board has opted for setting up a compact organisational structure for this purpose.

With immediate effect a Steering Group Educational Reform will be operative, consisting of at least:

-	the Rector Magnificus (Ed Brinksma, chairman)

-	the Chairman of the UCO (Ton Mouthaan)

-	the Director S&B (Ron Mazier)

-	the Secretary of the University (Erik van Keulen)

-	the educational reform adviser (Tom Mulder)

-	the Professor Director and project manager positioning and quality care master education (Petra de Weerd)”.

For the coordination and facilitation of the various projects a new function is to be introduced, namely that of Programme Director. Together with the responsibilities for the projects mentioned, the director constitutes a programme office. The project office reports to the steering group and the project director is the point of contact for this.

Mirjam Bult will act as Programme Director during the next six months.

Who is the new programme director educational reform?

Many of us used to know Mirjam Bult as a lecturer with the Faculty of Engineering Technology and as programme manager of the 3TU Master’s programme Construction Management & Engineering. From 1 December 2007, Mirjam Bult has been Secretary of 3TU, in which the leading three universities of technology in the Netherlands have joined forces. A position in which she was administratively responsible, from an independent position, for the strategy development, supervision and coordination of all the activities of the various organisational components within 3TU.

In October she announced that she will be leaving 3TU. On 9 January 2012 she started working with KPMG Management Consultants as a senior manager, where she will further develop and share her knowledge and experience of higher education, innovation and public-private collaboration. One of her tasks will now be to give direction to the various educational reforms within the UT.

Programme office RoUTe’14+ to become programme office Governance

Last year the Executive Board agreed with the University Council that after completion of the reorganisation plan RoUTe’14+, the discussion on the governance of the UT was to be initiated. This has since taken place. The reorganisation plan has been adopted in its definitive form. As a result the assignment of the programme office RoUTe’14+ has been completed.

Meanwhile, the programme office has received a new assignment which consists of coordinating the discussion on the governance of the UT. The programme office reports to Anne Flierman as the body that has ultimate administrative responsibility for the process. Several representatives from the UT community will be involved in various ways in the governance discussion.

The programme office governance consists of Bertyl Lankhaar (programme manager from S&B), Valentine Veenhof (HR), Henk Alberts (FEZ) and Anja Smit (HR). The programme office focuses on the following four governance components:

1.	Organisational structure / division of responsibilities;

2.	Participation;

3.	Financial allocation model;

4.	Organisation of support of the primary process in the long run.