International students who would like to do a Master’s degree at TU Delft in the next academic year will need to move fast. Because insufficient accommodation is available, it is very much a question of first come, first served.
TU Delft’s Executive Board has warned that a cap will be set on the intake of international Master’s students for the 2016-2017 academic year. Last year saw the intake increase by 40 percent: from 1,050 students in 2014-2015 to just under 1,500 in 2015-2016. “If another 40 percent increase were to happen, we would have to say: ‘we are full’,” says Director of Education & Student Affairs Timo Kos. “We have run out of student rooms.”
Last summer, the university was forced to arrange 700 extra student rooms in the space of just three months. “We cannot do the same again,” says Kos. This year, the university had to pull out all the stops to scrape together the rooms in Delft, Rijswijk, The Hague and Schiedam.
TU Delft is not specifying an exact maximum number at this stage. “We would like to be able to decide on that as applications come in during the year,” says Kos. He points out that applications for some Master’s programmes are coming in so fast that the faculties are struggling to cope. He names Mechanical Engineering and Aerospace Engineering in particular. “The numbers are enormous. We are talking in excess of 250 international Master’s students.”
In view of this, the ‘first come, first served’ principle will apply next year. “They are doing the same in Rotterdam,” says Kos. “The earlier you apply, the greater certainty of gaining a place. If you delay, we could already be full. Experience shows that better students tend to apply early.”
TU Delft does not intend to run a selection procedure. In Kos’s view, that would be too complicated. “But it will need to happen if growth continues. If this cap proves effective, it will enable us to grow in a more planned way. We also need to ensure that we have sufficient facilities and lecturers.”
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