Newsletter December 2008

English during University Council meetings

To encourage membership and participation of international staff and students, the University Council (UR) decided that councillors are welcome to speak English if they desire. This applies to individual councillors who communicate better in English. However, Dutch will remain as the main language, including the written minutes and reports.

For the meeting of 17 December 2008, the most important items on the agenda were the draft budget for 2009, the Bachelor of Science in European Studies, and the draft strategic vision ‘RoUTe 14’.

Draft Budget 2009

The most important points discussed were the perceived lack of funds for the next few years, ways to cover this shortage with reserve funds, the welcome improvement from clear insight into policy (‘RoUTe 14’), budgeting and results analysis, and the relationship between the allocation of structural funds from the Central Assistance (CO) and temporary (TCO) budgets. Further the UR commented on the different qualities of decentralised explanations of the partial budgets and the negative long range estimates of the Faculty of Science and Technology (TNW).

Having heard the Executive Board’s undertakings, the University Council (UR) advise was positive with respect to the partial budgets of the Telematics Graduate School (TG) and Institute for Biomedical Technology (BMT), and the overall draft budget for 2009.

Bachelor of Science in European Studies

It was noted that the School of Management and Governance (MB) has the required and relevant knowledge, research, and experience with the course content for the new Bachelor of Science in European Studies. However the UR acknowledges that a suitable minor offered in English, although welcome, is not yet feasible, and that language courses cannot yet be made a compulsory part of the study programme.

Having heard the Executive Board’s undertakings, the UR decided to agree to the agenda point Check New Study Programme, BSc in European Studies (Toets Nieuwe Opleiding BSc European Studies).

Draft strategic vision 2009 - 2014 ‘RoUTe 14’

During the discussion-meeting extensive attention was paid to the latest draft version of the strategic vision ‘RoUTe 14’. In the near future, the Executive Board particularly wants the UT to become more prominent and improve their ranking both nationally and internationally in education and research. The ‘RoUTe 14’ document describes the vision behind this ambition, and the next phase must now be to convert this into a realistic management plan. As part of this, separate discussion points relating to the decision process will be submitted to the UR. The Executive Board (CvB) also wants to be able to anticipant the recognisable expansion of internationally important social themes.

Separately the essential aspects and the design, specifically the intended schools and the mutual status, for the education building ‘onderwijsgebouw’ were discussed. Also the personnel policy was addressed, the UR remains concerned about the future form of appointment for the academic staff (like the intended Tenure track and the form of doctoral candidates) and the accompanying education and research tasks.

The UR insists on more attention for the contents and financial policy for the whole organisation. Noting that strategic vision also means also strategic funding and payment.

The Executive Council aim is to create a lively campus, and this was discussed at length. Specifically covered was the proposal of education timetabling from 9am – 9 pm, which has consequences for staff and students. Note, especially student activities can be negatively influenced by this. The Executive Board, for example, promised that compulsory education always will be offered before 6pm. Non-compulsory education can also be offered in the evening, but the Executive Board guarantees that there will always be optional subjects timetabled before 6pm. That can mean that in a few cases students may be restricted to courses that only occur during the day. Thus it must remain explicitly possible that all essential ECTS credits can be attained from 8am to 6pm.

Having heard the Executive Board’s extensive discussion over the last few weeks and with consideration and commitment to ‘RoUTe 14’, the UR has agreed to the main features of the strategic vision ‘RoUTe 14’ document. Also ‘RoUTe 14’ remains a recurring subject on the agenda and the results will be subject to staff and student input.

The UR decided that the following subjects are accepted for further elaboration:

Education:

• distinguishable qualities

• a pre-university college

• undergraduate education at a top ranking

• schools for graduate education, among others

Graduate School

• School for Professional Learning and Development

• Summer University

Campus:

• development of the infrastructure

• welcome campus schedules beyond the usual office hours

• more variation in student accommodation

• development of Knowledge Park, including creating new businesses and

workplaces

• challenging and distinguished architecture, landmark

HRM:

• inspiring recruitment policy and active recruitment of research talent

• introduction of tenure tracks with early right of promotion

Research:

• lobby for improved recognition of multidisciplinary research

• more professionally attraction of funds, especially international

• profiling research within specific disciplines

• reward programme for excellent research performance

• new international research network

Entrepreneurship:

• more room for entrepreneurship

• stimulating programmes in education and HRM

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