Bachelor lectures at TU/e are to the utmost extent still given in Dutch, often with the typical southern accent. No problem you would say, because for freshmen at our university it is convenient that those difficult Calculus exercises are explained in their mother tongue. For Dutch school kids the switch to English study books is often a big fear, but the reality is in my opinion not that bad.

Eventually, everybody has to adopt the English language, because there is a big chance that when engineering students graduate they will start working at an international company. I think that there is only one reasonable outcome of the discussion about the formal language at our university: English will become the TU/e’s official language. It is the only way to end the whining about foreign teachers who do not speak Dutch, bad translations of terminology and students that have insufficient knowledge of the English language when they start their Master.

During official events like the Opening of the Academic Year speeches are already held in English, and seven Bachelor’s programs are currently educated in English. I hope these are soon followed by the rest of the Bachelor’s programs at TU/e. The current workaround is strange: as a foreign student that wants to study Electrical Engineering, Eindhoven is the place to be, but if you want to do Mechanical Engineering then you’re in the wrong place.

Our university has to take this step towards further internationalization, rather today than tomorrow. It is a great opportunity to attract more foreign students to the university and inevitable in the mission to position the TU/e as an internationally renowned university. And of course, that will be a little difficult for our freshmen, but in the end it will work out fine. No worries.CLMN | No worries