A student is making a handbook for TU Delft

Erwin Schubert, an Industrial Design student, is working on a handbook, in English, for TU Delft's foreign teachers and professors, who will finally get the informative handbook they've needed for years.

There is very little information about the university available in English for foreign employees who aren't able to read Dutch. And this makes it difficult for them to fathom the formal, and informal, structure of the university. "For instance, some foreign professors are surprised by the number of formal meetings," says Erwin Schubert. "And they're even more surprised that many meetings don't lead to concrete results."

Schubert, who is working on his graduation project at the MSc-office, is being supervised by Professor Jim Hennessey, from the United States, who would've liked to have such a handbook when he arrived at TU Delft ten years ago.

In order to develop his handbook, Schubert interviewed seven professors at various faculties. He discovered that most people do not realise that information is available in booklets or on the internet. He also discovered that much of this information is inadequate.

Schubert noticed that the type of information required changes over time. In the beginning, foreign professors want to know about housing and immigration laws; later, when settled, they want information about how to introduce new courses into the curriculum or where to obtain funding for new research projects.

"Most professors are smart enough to find out what they want to know, and secretaries and other colleagues help new professors a lot. However, it would be better and less time consuming if all kinds of basic information was available in a handbook or webpage. Additionally, some professors don't like asking so many questions," Schubert says.

Schubert hopes to make his handbook as complete as possible by citing information that's already available and writing short articles about information that's not yet available, like the responsibilities of a professor. However, he concedes that it's difficult to get a finger on informal university structures. "These structures differ between various faculties and are changing over time," he says. "So some help from colleagues will always be necessary."

Schubert hopes to graduate in July with a working prototype that can be further developed by another department within the university, such as the International Office or Communication &

Marketing Group.