Considering industrial ecoloy

That said, an interdisciplinary program like industrial ecology (IE) offers lots of freedom. (Full disclosure: it’s what I study, so I’m probably biased). But what is industrial ecology? Ok, plenty of people have never heard of it.

The science is only about 15 years old and can be tricky to describe. Officially, it’s the study of material and energy flows in built systems (like factories or buildings) but most of us talk about it as the science to save the world – or our own asses. I could bore you talking about life-cycle analysis, but maybe the easiest thing is to give an example: you’re going to build some houses, and you want them to be the greenest, most comfortable houses possible. First, you’ll need a team, because you must understand the science behind what makes a house green and comfortable, the engineering behind saving and generating your own energy in the house, and how to design a house that people actually want to live in and can afford. To do all this, you must talk to people who might live there, to the people who will sell you the materials, and to those who’ve built green homes in the past. And then you must fit all these pieces together. This same process applies to other systems, whether a factory, product chain (like for a computer), or a city, and it’s the kind of project we do in IE all the time, with each student specializing in different parts of the process.

One core principle of industrial ecology is that collaboration between disciplines creates synergy, or solutions, that are superior to any conceived in just one discipline. This has been valuable in my education, because, let’s face it, whether an engineer or product designer, disciplines tend to see the world with one set of glasses. But by working together, you can combine the best of all worlds. The IE program won’t make an engineer out of a social scientist, or vice versa, but it will teach them to work together and understand each other.
The joint TU Delft/Leiden University MSc degree in industrial ecology is one of the few programmes in the world devoted solely to industrial ecology, enrolling about 20 students a year from almost every academic background, and one of the cool things about being in a small club is that everyone knows each other and is very helpful. I’ve met with several IE graduates this year to talk about theses and internships, not that we’ve got much to worry about – virtually all IE graduates are either employed in the field or pursuing PhD studies. I’ll be interning at DSM, modeling networked value chains. Other options vary from large engineering firms like Royal Haskoning to governmental policymaking. So, if you’re looking for an emerging, exciting field to call your own, IE is a great place to call home.” (ie.leidendelft.nl or iesashift.nl)

Devin Malone, a second-year MSc student of industrial ecology, is from Anchorage, Alaska. He has lived, worked, and traveled in 21 countries on four continents.

Nederlandse hogescholen en universiteiten telden in studiejaar ’05/’06 twaalfduizend Duitse studenten. Vorig jaar waren dat er negentienduizend. In het hbo nam het aantal Duitse studenten de laatste drie jaar toe met bijna de helft, aan de universiteiten zelfs met driekwart.

Ter vergelijking: in dezelfde periode steeg het aantal Nederlandse studenten met minder dan zes procent. Het aandeel Duitsers nam daardoor toe van ruim twee procent tot ruim drie procent van alle studenten.

Het aantal Chinezen kalfde in dezelfde periode enigszins af van 3880 tot 3470 studenten. Met name in het hbo werden het er minder.

Van de buitenlandse studenten in Nederland komt ruim veertig procent uit Duitsland. China en België, de nummers twee en drie, volgen op grote afstand. Bijna 45 duizend buitenlandse studenten stonden vorig jaar ingeschreven aan een Nederlandse universiteit of hogeschool: 28 procent meer dan drie jaar geleden.

De studies psychologie (23 procent) en bedrijfskunde (22 procent) zijn het populairst onder Duitsers in het wo, in het hbo is dat de opleiding sociaal-pedagogische hulpverlening (14 procent). Chinese hbo-studenten kiezen het vaakst voor de opleiding internationale organisaties en betrekkingen (42 procent).

Een meerderheid van de buitenlandse studenten is vrouw, respectievelijk zestig en 54 procent in het hbo en wo, al schommelt hun aandeel sterk: zo is van de Russische wo-studenten driekwart vrouw, en van de Pakistaanse hbo’ers maar acht procent.