At the beginning of this academic year the Executive Board informed the deans that all the Bachelor education must become English. Even though the Board did not impose a date, it does appear that most programs which are still in Dutch today will switch to English by the end of next year. If you ask Rector Frank Baaijens, it will take less than a decade before all lecturers have exchanged Dutch for English.

Baaijens mentions two important reasons for the desired switch. “We want to train students to work in an international environment. In the world of science and in most companies where TU/e graduates end up, English is truly the language of communication. When international students can follow their Bachelor’s programs here, they will get in touch more quickly with Dutch customs like ‘being direct’ and they will be better prepared for working in the business community. A second reason is that we can then deploy top scientists from all across the globe for Bachelor education.” Baaijens emphasizes that the recruitment of more international students to increase the intake is clearly not a reason. “We have already received a considerably larger number of students and we do not intend to keep growing too fast. That is not an argument for us to switch to English.”

Out of the fifteen Bachelor programs, eight are meanwhile being taught in English and the Bachelor’s program Data Science, which is scheduled to start in September, will also be in English. Applied Physics, Mechanical Engineering, Applied Mathematics and Chemical Engineering and Chemistry are planning to switch by September 2017. At Industrial Engineering ‘the discussion is ongoing’ and at Biomedical Engineering and Medical Sciences and Technology they will not be making the switch for the time being.

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