Talent and excellence, that's what it is all about

Talent, cooperation and resilience remain very much the three spearheads of the university's strategy, with talent most highly valued. "Talent is the bedrock. We can maintain our position as an internationally leading university only if we are able to attract the best students, researchers and employees." In the Institutional Plan, the Executive Board lays out the challenging road toward this goal over the next four years.

Talent: innovative education

For the Talent component a great many concrete steps have already been taken: "To attract the best students, you must offer highly innovative education. This is abundantly available within Challenge-Based Learning (CBL) at the innovation Space, and within the Bachelor College. Last week further confirmation of the quality of our challenge-based education within the innovation Space came with the news that we have won the main prize of the Dutch Higher Education Awards," says Smits by way of illustration.

With this form of education, which revolves around working on real-life challenges in multidisciplinary teams, TU/e is training the engineers of the future so urgently needed by high-tech industry, as Smits knows. "Whenever I visit companies in the Brainport region, I hear the tremendous enthusiasm for our alumni. They are good at solving problems, at working in teams and are able to communicate well. Naturally, it is essential that alongside these skills they possess a thorough knowledge of their discipline."

CBL is a labor-intensive form of education for lecturers, involving much supervision of small teams of students. "We want to make the student-staff ratio a strong focus: it must become 1 to 17. In light of this, we are adjusting our growth to 13,000 students maximum." This has consequences for the supply of engineers, so very needed in the region. "Industry wants more, more, more, but we can explain why we are setting this limit at this time. Simply put, not enough money is currently being released by government to educate more students. And we have no wish to become a factory for the mediocre, we want to deliver top quality alumni."

Talent: research institutes and state of the art facilities

"If we want to attract the best researchers, we must be active in the 'happening' fields. We are doing this within the discipline in the departments and with our institutes, where work that crosses the boundaries of our departments is being done on artificial intelligence (EAISI), the storage of renewable energy (EIRES) and on complex molecular systems (ICMS). In September we are launching our fourth institute, which will concentrate on photonics and quantum technology. A group of excellent scientists is hard at work refining the plans for this institute."

Similarly, the university's research infrastructure plays an important role in our ability to attract elite academics. "The top echelon of talent is keen to go where the superb facilities are, they are keen to work in a cleanroom where everything is state of the art. We are now taking stock of which large pieces of equipment we want to purchase in future, to put us in the position to draw the very talented."

Talent: more women among the academic staff

"In the search for diverse research talent, alongside quality, we will continue to pursue an improved balance in the numbers of men and women. Following a modification, the Irène Curie Fellowship program will soon be resumed. In little over a year we have succeeded in attracting 110 outstanding individuals, 55 of whom are women. Normally, we were used to recruiting about 10 women a year," says Smits. The university's ambition is for women to comprise 30 percent of the academic staff. When he took up office, two years ago, Smits felt the low number of women holding a full professorship as a thorn in his side. "Earlier measures to increase this figure met with scant success. We aimed high with the Irène Curie program; we stuck our neck out." The university received plenty of criticism when it was announced in 2019 that positive discrimination in favor of women would be exercised when vacancies are being filled. "I think it is impressive that we took this bold step."

Cooperation: Brainport

Eindhoven's industry played a major role 65 years ago in the founding of TU/e, and these close ties continue to this day. What's more, "We plan to intensify the university's cooperation with the region to an unprecedented level," says Smits. "We are an international university in terms of students and employees, but we are rooted in the Brainport region - a region with 240 billion euros in business value. And there it is, right in our back yard. Half the world is jealous of that potential."

With Brainport and individual industrial partners, TU/e will be looking at how knowledge can be developed through working together and at the types of engineers needed. "So, for example, we are asking Philips what they need in the field of artificial intelligence or medical diagnostic tools. With companies like NXP and ASML we are doing the same - looking at how we can respond beneficially to each other's needs."

"In addition, we want to give the startup scene in our region a boost. This is why together with our Brainport partners we have founded The Gate; a one-stop shop for high-tech starters." The cooperation with TIlburg University in the context of JADS is, says Smits, another element of the strategy to strengthen the region.

Cooperation: Fontys

"When Fontys took up residence on our campus in 2019, we rolled out the red carpet for them, quite literally," says Smits, to emphasize how much importance he attaches to the university's cooperation with this educational institution. "It is important to us that students find the place that suits them. Together, we have made Eindhoven a student city." As examples, Smits mentions joint introduction days, student teams with a mix of TU/e and Fontys students and a program to ease the transition between the two institutions.

Cooperation: national and international

Naturally, the university will continue to cooperate at the national level with, among others, the 4TUs and within the alliance with Utrecht University, UMCU and Wageningen. And, likewise, the international cooperation within Eurotech, this year marking its tenth year, continues. "Within Eurotech we are cooperating with the best technology universities in Europe. Our students are able to take classes at these universities. This gives them a degree from not only TU/e, but also from Eurotech. Together, we are always seeking ways to offer added value for both our students and our researchers."

Resilience: COVID-19 brings added dimension

Resilience, the third main theme within TU/e's strategy, has gained an added dimension thanks to the advent of COVID-19. "Over the past year the organization has proved, however, that it performs well in this regard," says Smits with pride. "Bringing the education online within a week, as well as switching the entire community to online working, these were huge challenges for our people and our systems. We are not there yet, we are continuing to optimize our business processes and our digital facilities. We are working on a new strategy relating to cyber security, for example. We have all seen what happened at Maastricht University and with NWO; that is something we want to stay one step ahead of."

Smits emphasizes that he is aware that we have been deeply tested by the pandemic, "but we really have shown our strength. I am proud of our community. Of how we are working together, how solutions are being sought, how we are helping one another. I know that many people are going through a very difficult time; the sense of connection, with employees and students, is something we are constantly seeking. For students, the associations are playing an important role."

Resilience: campus

In any vision of an appealing university where talented individuals are keen to come belongs a lively campus. "The renovation of Laplace is already underway and before the summer we'll be making decisions about other buildings, such as Gemini," says Smits. He feels it is important that the campus stays green and that its connection with the city is given greater emphasis. "My dream is to see it become a park where people come at the weekend, not only to walk through the green environment, but also because there is something here to see or do, for example with the help of living labs. Imagine a robot walking through the pond in front of Atlas, picking up trash as it goes."

"Actually, we really should celebrate MomenTUm in the city sometime, in the Philips Stadion, for instance," continues Smits enthusiastically. That fits in perfectly with our philosophy that we want to go back to our roots, the city of Eindhoven." Then, finally, Smits starts dreaming aloud about a new welcome message at Eindhoven Airport, "so that as soon as you land there, you are welcomed with posters bearing the words Welcome to Eindhoven, home of TU/e."