Hogeschool students refused access to EUR study areas: Board expresses disappointment

The board of Hogeschool Rotterdam (HR) is surprised by Erasmus University’s decision to limit access to EUR study areas to its own students, reports HR’s magazine Profielen. According to HR, the Board learned of this decision from EM and Profielen.

As of 11 June, HR students are no longer welcome in the designated study areas of EUR buildings like Polak, Tinbergen and the University Library. Security staff will be checking visitors’ student registration cards. While still a pilot project for the duration of the examination period, it is not clear whether the measure is around to stay. HR students are permitted to use informal study areas on the EUR grounds, like the cafeterias. Hogeschool Rotterdam also has a location on the south side of campus Woudestein: Kralingse Zoom, situated next to the Mandeville Building. This location is mainly used for Business Economics programmes.

Told in advance

“We’d have preferred to have been told in advance by the EUR Board,” says HR Chairman Wijnand van den Brink in Profielen. “Perhaps then we could have conferred and arrived at a mutually satisfactory solution.”

In response to the university’s decision to restrict access to the study areas, the HR Board have contacted their colleagues at EUR in order to ‘further discuss possible avenues for constructive collaboration on the campus grounds,’ according to Van den Brink.

An EUR spokesperson told EM that the pilot project had been discussed ‘on a number of occasions’ during consultation meetings with HR. “Unfortunately, Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences was not – or incorrectly – informed of the project’s start date. A poor show on our part. That’s why Erasmus University is examining what we can do to improve communication to ensure that HR receives the correct information.”

Close collaboration remains ‘very important’

Both EUR and HR says close collaboration between the two institutions is ‘very important’ to them. Van den Brink (HR): “Particularly when you consider the joint challenges we will be handling together – the campus’s further development, among other things. We intend to start sharing campus sports facilities, for example.”