The strategic board (Executive Board, deans and scientific directors) is the initiator of a total of four sessions in which UT employees can contribute ideas about the institutional plan in these weeks. After UT previously came up with Route 14, Route 14+, Vision2020 and Shaping2030, 'Reinventing our UT' should determine the future course of the UT.
Uncertainty
That plan for the future will not exactly come about out of luxury, as it soon became clear from the introduction by rector Tom Veldkamp. 'The fact that the cabinet has fallen does not mean that the budget cuts are off the table,' he said, followed by the remark: 'Actually, we don't feel most government cuts yet. The uncertainties remain and we have to take into account that things will decline. The only certainty we have in the coming years is that it will remain uncertain.'
Before those present threw themselves into the flipboards, post-its and highlighters, the rector once again insisted on the reason for writing the institutional plan. 'We have to work more efficiently and effectively. Now there are too many people compared to our student numbers and sources of funding for research. So we have to stay in line financially and continue the good work we are doing.'
Colouring
The seventy employees present – with a relatively large number of managers in their midst – did not get to work with a blank sheet of paper. In the run-up to the institutional plan, seven principles had already been drawn up by the strategic board. As a result – by kindergarten analogy – those present already had access to a reasonably drawn colouring book. They were allowed to 'colour' them in their own way in the Technohal.
In different groups, they thought about these seven principles – from future-proof education and research, to harmonization of supporting processes and 'Unleashing the Entrepreneurial Mindset at UT!'. Another group was invited to grab the crystal ball and think about what a day at the UT will look like in the year 2040.
The UT in 2040
A selection from that session: in fifteen years' time, most people will still be firmly convinced of the added value of a safe and green campus, we will no longer be able to ignore artificial intelligence, we will have a sharper profile and we will focus more on lifelong learning and the collaboration with fellow educational institutions Saxion and ROC van Twente. Some also jokingly suggested that – in view of climate change – there will be a free fresh fruit supply on campus by 2040. A banana plantation is certainly a possibility – albeit with a wink.
In other sessions, too, the brains were worked; a little further down the atrium, a group performed a seemingly complex role-play to discuss behaviour and culture. 'We want to get people out of their bubble,' explains Anneke Sools. The associate professor is in the working group that has to write the chapter on behaviour and culture for the institutional plan. 'We have only just started as a working group. What is good to notice during this session is that dilemmas are immediately put on the table, for instance about the culture within the UT and that of external parties. We can undoubtedly get started with something like that.'
After a good hour of brainstorming, drawing out and discussing, the sessions were heading towards completion. Rector Tom Veldkamp summarised the results in plenary, also kicking in a number of open doors: 'You can't see research facilities separately from education', for example. Or: 'Centralisation and decentralisation of support have both advantages and disadvantages'.
Surprises
The rector himself said that he hopes to be surprised. 'We are and will always be the University of Twente. Our core values will not change, but our accents will shift. I have my blind spots, which of course also applies to other members of the strategic council. I therefore hope to be surprised with new ideas.'
Nothing that has been suggested has already been cast in stone. This will be followed by three more sessions – two in English, one in Dutch. Before the end of this calendar year, the UT must have a new institutional plan on the table. 'Hopefully that is a plan that everyone can agree with – and that we can work with,' says the rector.
