The Dutch Mimister of Education has declared that IHE, the Delft-based international education institute, can remain independent.For years, students from all over the world have come to Delft to specialise in the fields of hydraulics, environment and infrastructure, following English-language courses.
However, they don’t come to study at the TU, but at IHE, an international institute that focuses on educating people from developing countries and Eastern Europe.
Last year, the Dutch Ministry of Education requested that IHE and TU consider administrative co-operation. The negotiations, however, didn’t result in an agreement. Minister Hermans has now decided that IHE, which came into being in the 1950s independent of the TU, should remain independent. IHE will continue under the UNESCO flag, as their world-wide Institute for Water Education.
”I think it’s a missed opportunity,” states Mariëtta Spiekerman, TU’s senior policy maker for internationalisation. ”We’ve got much in common and can intensify each other’s courses.” IHE and TU will now become competitors.
TU’s Civil Engineering department didn’t start their own English-language MSc. course until now because ”we always considered IHE as our front and back door,” says Dean Henk Jan Overbeek, of Civil Engineering and Geosciences. “But as IHE now chooses an independent direction, we too will go our own way, establishing a separate English-language MSc course. And we won’t hesitate to advertise in foreign countries.”
Overbeek expects that there will be differences between the two courses when the TU starts its course in 2002. ”We’ll focus more on technique and construction. IHE’s course is ‘greener’, stressing landscape, ecology and management of natural sources.” Additionally, IHE will focus more on foreigners with working experience than the TU will.
The Dutch Mimister of Education has declared that IHE, the Delft-based international education institute, can remain independent.
For years, students from all over the world have come to Delft to specialise in the fields of hydraulics, environment and infrastructure, following English-language courses. However, they don’t come to study at the TU, but at IHE, an international institute that focuses on educating people from developing countries and Eastern Europe.
Last year, the Dutch Ministry of Education requested that IHE and TU consider administrative co-operation. The negotiations, however, didn’t result in an agreement. Minister Hermans has now decided that IHE, which came into being in the 1950s independent of the TU, should remain independent. IHE will continue under the UNESCO flag, as their world-wide Institute for Water Education.
”I think it’s a missed opportunity,” states Mariëtta Spiekerman, TU’s senior policy maker for internationalisation. ”We’ve got much in common and can intensify each other’s courses.” IHE and TU will now become competitors.
TU’s Civil Engineering department didn’t start their own English-language MSc. course until now because ”we always considered IHE as our front and back door,” says Dean Henk Jan Overbeek, of Civil Engineering and Geosciences. “But as IHE now chooses an independent direction, we too will go our own way, establishing a separate English-language MSc course. And we won’t hesitate to advertise in foreign countries.”
Overbeek expects that there will be differences between the two courses when the TU starts its course in 2002. ”We’ll focus more on technique and construction. IHE’s course is ‘greener’, stressing landscape, ecology and management of natural sources.” Additionally, IHE will focus more on foreigners with working experience than the TU will.
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