Optimal crosspollination between academia and practice

Delft School for Public Management and Technology

Nobel Prizewinners who give lectures, inspirational debates, top-level masterclasses... when it comes to ‘lifelong learning’, TU Delft is positively bursting with activity. However, the outside world is largely unaware of the fact. The soon-to-be-launched Delft School for Public Management and Technology intends to change this. Not as a physical school, but as an access portal to the TU Delft campus: the place where it all happens!

They are currently offered in a slightly haphazard way: the Elsevier Technology debates, the masterclasses and practical lectures at the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment (I and E) and the Master’s programme for students to obtain I and E endorsements. “So it is high time to put them firmly on the map - together.” explains Willemijn Dicke, assistant professor in the Policy, Organisation, Law and Gaming section at TPM. Together with Jeroen van den Hoven, Kim Colman, Mark Bosma and Hans de Bruijn, she is driving the development of the Delft School, at the suggestion of Dean Theo Toonen.

The Delft School seeks to offer an umbrella structure aimed at enhancing the identity of a number of existing initiatives. Dicke continues, “But also to facilitate meetings between those involved in practice and those involved in the teaching and the research areas in which TU Delft occupies an outstanding position. We want to invest in contacts with top executives and leading officials, as well as the general public, in technology-driven environments. We want to sit down with boards of directors, politicians and policymakers in order to clarify problem areas and to look for solutions. The basic objective is that of creating optimal crosspollination between teaching, research and agenda-setting in the interest of major social challenges and today’s international ‘Grand Challenges for Engineering’ that we subscribe to and which TU Delft’s Executive Board has adopted as its starting point for its 2020 Road Map.”

As a modest start, therefore, the Delft School will adopt the Elsevier Technology debates, the masterclasses and practical lectures at I and E and the possibility for Master’s programme students to obtain I and E endorsements. In addition, the Delft School will seek to build on its partnership with Leiden University, Erasmus University Rotterdam and TU Delft, for which the chairmen of the Executive Boards signed a covenant some time ago. Wijnand Veeneman, for example, is already organising a series of masterclasses on behalf of TU Delft for the Ministry of I and E on typical TU Delft subjects. The intention is for the Delft School to further expand the series to around six afternoons and, where relevant, to include the know-how of Erasmus University Rotterdam and Leiden University.

Top-level experts

“Take a masterclass about managing large infrastructural works, for example. TU Delft can provide the technological knowledge and teach management of processes, Rotterdam can deal with the economic aspects and Leiden can add the legal knowledge. That makes it even more interesting for those taking part.” A similar approach can be adopted for such subjects as nuclear energy and

nanotechnology. Dicke says, “It means that high-level officials and brilliant young policymakers can not only catch up on the latest technological developments, but also on the economic and legal aspects. The 3TU Ethics Centre offers world-class expertise in the field of ethics, which has been achieved by combining the efforts of top-level experts from the three universities.” And there are other plans for the future, too. “We want to organize short courses and Master’s programmes, for example, also in a partnership between Leiden, Rotterdam and Delft, together with our international partners, such as those in Tokyo, Singapore, Bangalore or Shenzen. These courses will also be very appealing.”

In addition, the Delft School would like to offer more practicebased PhD programmes (the PD Engs), a new phenomenon in the academic world. “There are many professionals aged around thirty or forty who would very much like to acquire a deeper knowledge of a particular aspect of their work and who would like to gain a PhD in the subject. Examples that come to mind are risk management, security, privacy and asset management. However, they are deterred by the idea of embarking on a complete academic programme. They will therefore shortly have the opportunity to write a PhD thesis on the basis of slightly different criteria than those for regular PhD programmes.”

Another initiative that the Delft School may be launching is the sharing of academic knowledge on subjects that are relevant to more than one ministry. “Take DNA modelling, for example – one of the priority areas in the research partnership between TU Delft and the LUMC in Leiden, also known as Medical Delta. Based on a test-tube of blood, we can already determine which illnesses a person is likely to get. Soon, it will be possible to derive the same information from a DNA swab from the mouth. Or take the use of robotics in operating theatres – that is another imminent innovation. Developments of this kind are unstoppable and have an enormous social impact. It would be great if we could bring the Ministries of Education, Culture and Science, and of Health, Welfare and Sports up to date about the kind of things that are possible, so that they can anticipate these and act appropriately.”

Front office

The Executive Board still has to decide which form the Delft School for Public Management and Technology should take. One thing is certain, though: there will be no new campus the size of the current TU Delft campus. “We have a front office in mind - a kind of learning centre tailored to individuals from the practical arena - in The Hague, manned by a handful of people who know TU Delft and the market very well. For that reason, we are also working very closely with the Valorisation Centre. The front office employees could act as representatives of TU Delft; they could give senior figures from the world of politics a virtual or even a real tour of all the unique research and facilities the university has to offer, such as our simulation laboratories.”

Dicke is hoping that the Delft School can start in September. The plan is to first make the low-hanging fruit, in other words the existing initiatives, more enticing by pooling it and presenting it in a single portfolio to interested parties, such as those in The Hague, but also to the members of the less obvious social and economic leading sectors. It means, for example, that conferences of Next Generation Infrastructures and the Delft Centre for Entrepreneurship can be presented under the same flag to policymakers, the private sector and utility companies.

The emphasis in the third to the fifth years will lie on high-level teaching and research. Highly specialised courses will be run for top executives from both the private and public sectors, who will be able to submit a case study on asset management or risk management, for example. Experts from TU Delft and other universities will then be brought in to give their thoughts on the case studies, either online or, if desired, at meetings.

Another ambition is to set up a research section at the Delft School, together with the National University of Singapore and other universities. This will create an international course in water management, for example, a field in which TU Delft excels. Dicke: “At the Delft School, lifelong learning starts with the Master’s programmes, in which we include theory and practical aspects. People in mid-career can then take a complementary Master’s. And in the longer term, high-level classes in short courses given by outstanding researchers will be available for those seeking to bring their knowledge up to date. There really is something for everybody.”