{"id":9472,"date":"2013-11-15T14:05:25","date_gmt":"2013-11-15T14:05:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress72\/?p=24722"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:22:30","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:22:30","slug":"what-does-the-new-rector-want","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2013\/11\/15\/what-does-the-new-rector-want\/","title":{"rendered":"What does the new rector want?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Both excellent research and education, connecting faculties and multidisciplinary research, and more internationalization. These are the key points of the new rector Huib Pols. <\/p>\n

Tuesday November 12th, the new rector was a guest in talk show Studio Erasmus, his first public appearance since he was appointed rector during the centennial. The EUR must become \u2018less dependent on our fickle government\u2019. The national contribution to scientific research is declining, so the university needs to look for support elsewhere. <\/p>\n

The game in Brussels<\/strong><\/p>\n

Support can be largely found in Brussels, Pols argues. Keywords are multidisciplinary research and internationalization. Therewith, scientists enlarge their chances of successfully obtaining an examination fee. Pols wants to play a facilitating role in that process. \u201cBureaucracy plays a big part in presenting a research proposal, which makes you go crazy. As rector, I want to make people familiar with the rules of the game in Brussels.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Second day<\/p>\n

Pols didn\u2019t want to burn his hands on the question what is going to happen to the fields that are having a tough time, like Philosophy or History. \u201cThis is only my second day in my new position.\u201d According to the rector, the EUR offers a good mix of scientific fields. \u201cHow to organize that in a new way, that\u2019s the question. But in any case, it must benefit science, not management.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nominal is normal<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tuesday night, Pols talked nearly as inspired about \u2018Nominal is normal\u2019 (the new measure that requires freshmen to retrieve all 60 points in the first year, and allows compensatory tests) as his predecessor Henk Schmidt, who introduced the measure. \u201cJust get on with it and obtain all 60 points in your first year. It will help you your entire life.\u201d On secondary schools and American universities, a grade point average is completely normal, the new rector emphasizes. \u201cWe\u2019re absolutely not educating dumber people.\u201d That means no huge changes in education. Pols added that he sees no benefit in more stringent progress requirements in the remainder of the bachelor. \u201cWe will not continue with a binding study advice in the second or third year. I don\u2019t believe in that.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

MOOC\u2019s<\/p>\n

Something Pols does believe in, is the application of ICT in education. \u201cI want to invest in MOOC\u2019s\u201d, he said. More specific, that should happen in the niches in which the EUR excels, preferably in conjunction with Leiden en Delft. That\u2019s where, according to Pols, the focus should be. \u201cWe must not think we can do better than Harvard or Stanford.\u201d TF<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t

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