“The world is a very competitive place for industries and professionals alike. But competitiveness is not necessarily a bad thing – only the fittest surviving and thriving has served us very well over the years.
The drive to stay ahead of the competition has forced companies to push the envelope, for all mankind. Dealing with global competition is nothing new to Dutch industry. Many successful Dutch multinational organizations bear testimony to this fact. However, cut-throat competitive attitudes have been deliberately weeded out at the student level. The Netherlands is not alone when it comes to believing that if students start to get too competitive, the learning process can suffer. Students would simply focus on getting better grades, and find ways to hack exams instead of focusing on learning. It could also force students, and departments, to be conservative in the research projects they undertake. Hence, undoubtedly, there are many advantages to be gained in cocooning technical education from the harshly competitive world. However, this begs the question as to how such students would fare if dropped into the real world?
International students hailing from countries like India and China have had to overcome grueling competition against huge numbers of competitors to get noticed. This was a fundamental requirement for us to even make it as far as being admitted to TU Delft. Unfortunately, after having spent a few years in the Netherlands, we find ourselves having settled into a comfort zone. Most of us have become so averse to the competitive environment that once spawned us, that we have a fear of being lost in the crowd if we were to go back home! While we may have grown technically, we have really become less ‘international’.
At the other end of the spectrum, to what extent is a native Dutch student capable of even considering a career move to South Korea or Singapore? Although now the need may not seem evident, this may not be the case a few years. Already, India and China pay as well as the Netherlands, and the standard of living is much higher. But the question then would be whether a Dutch graduate would be too afraid to move there?
So what can be a solution? Getting used to competition could be purely a personal initiative, such as looking to highly competitive places for a short stint while still pursuing a PhD at TU Delft. The same holds true while working in industry, by trying to join a short project in a very competitive and challenging working environment. There need be no misgivings about such an undertaking as long as you maintain a safety-line that can safely rope you back to the Netherlands.
The other possibility would be for the TU to consider providing a few elective courses based on competitive performance, wherein a healthy yet stiff sense of competition is fostered among students. The message should be that competition isn’t to be feared, but tackled as a sporting opportunity to prove oneself to be first among many equals!”
Ramesh Chidambaram is from India. He is a recent MSc micro-electronics graduate of TU Delft and curently works for Philips Semiconductors in Nijmegen.
“The world is a very competitive place for industries and professionals alike. But competitiveness is not necessarily a bad thing – only the fittest surviving and thriving has served us very well over the years. The drive to stay ahead of the competition has forced companies to push the envelope, for all mankind. Dealing with global competition is nothing new to Dutch industry. Many successful Dutch multinational organizations bear testimony to this fact. However, cut-throat competitive attitudes have been deliberately weeded out at the student level. The Netherlands is not alone when it comes to believing that if students start to get too competitive, the learning process can suffer. Students would simply focus on getting better grades, and find ways to hack exams instead of focusing on learning. It could also force students, and departments, to be conservative in the research projects they undertake. Hence, undoubtedly, there are many advantages to be gained in cocooning technical education from the harshly competitive world. However, this begs the question as to how such students would fare if dropped into the real world?
International students hailing from countries like India and China have had to overcome grueling competition against huge numbers of competitors to get noticed. This was a fundamental requirement for us to even make it as far as being admitted to TU Delft. Unfortunately, after having spent a few years in the Netherlands, we find ourselves having settled into a comfort zone. Most of us have become so averse to the competitive environment that once spawned us, that we have a fear of being lost in the crowd if we were to go back home! While we may have grown technically, we have really become less ‘international’.
At the other end of the spectrum, to what extent is a native Dutch student capable of even considering a career move to South Korea or Singapore? Although now the need may not seem evident, this may not be the case a few years. Already, India and China pay as well as the Netherlands, and the standard of living is much higher. But the question then would be whether a Dutch graduate would be too afraid to move there?
So what can be a solution? Getting used to competition could be purely a personal initiative, such as looking to highly competitive places for a short stint while still pursuing a PhD at TU Delft. The same holds true while working in industry, by trying to join a short project in a very competitive and challenging working environment. There need be no misgivings about such an undertaking as long as you maintain a safety-line that can safely rope you back to the Netherlands.
The other possibility would be for the TU to consider providing a few elective courses based on competitive performance, wherein a healthy yet stiff sense of competition is fostered among students. The message should be that competition isn’t to be feared, but tackled as a sporting opportunity to prove oneself to be first among many equals!”
Ramesh Chidambaram is from India. He is a recent MSc micro-electronics graduate of TU Delft and curently works for Philips Semiconductors in Nijmegen.
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