With this - in the long run - far-reaching kind of co-operation the three institutes want to arm themselves for the increasing international competition, the consequences of the declining numbers of students in the technical programmes and the high cost of (overdue) upkeep of the university facilities for education and research.
In a declaration of intent, which was signed last month, the TUD, TUE and UT assert that broad spectrum co-operation and division of tasks (education, research, infrastructure, personnel, ed.) 'is absolutely necessary' to maintain a leading position internationally.
The whole course from taking stock until offering 'a set of agreements' to the Education Secretary should take 20 months. The orientation phase should be concluded in July next year, after which the 'agreement phase' at operational level will take another year. To carry out this project the TUD, TUE, and UT will apply for the maximum subsidy of three million euros at the ministry, which has forty million reserved for Bachelor-Master projects.
On 1 July 2004 it should be clear what the bachelor's programmes on offer at the three institutes are (including a matrix for the maximum of reciprocal possibilities for students to move up to Master's programmes), who offers which Master's programmes and how the three partners 'maintain an efficiently designed system of research focal points'.
The project proposition, sent to the ministry last week, also shows that the three executive boards have already started taking stock of all the existing and intended bachelors and masters, as well as the research plans of the institutes.
The next step is for the universities' own experts on content to 'interpret' what the similarities and differences in terms of efficiency and importance for the Dutch research infrastructure are. Then the propositions on how to harmonise the programmes and divide tasks will be formulated.
According to the plan of the three executive boards 'the choices and profiles of the research focal points' are also addressed. These show that exchanging research areas will not be ruled out. The aim is to give each of the three institutes a recognisable education and research profile, with joint use of the expensive infrastructure.
An external panel of experts, consisting of members of the Forum for Science and Technology, is brought in to judge the intendeddivision of tasks between TUD, TUE and UT.
