I’m sitting at the dinner table with my housemates, thinking about how I want to start my column. Meanwhile, my housemates are having a discussion about sayings that are banned in our living room, unless they are distorted. In my head, I’m focussing on my topic: the budget cuts in education and science. I’m still unsure if this topic is provocative enough for a column in a university magazine. To stay in line with my housemates’ discussion: a column that only preaches to the choir is pointless.

‘Preaching to the choir’; this saying is stuck in my head when thinking of MomenTUm last month. Literally and figuratively, I observe the situation from a distance. A group of academics celebrating itself during an expensive party as they hand out thousands of euros worth of prize money to the best professors and students. Followed by a call to yell "boo" directed at the government and its budget-cutting plans, to which the crowd loudly responds. Does no one within this 'choir' understands why a large part of our fellow citizens thinks universities could function with a little less? And isn’t tightening the belt exactly what we need at TU/e to get back to the core?

A large portion of the graduates attending are internationals, who can enjoy their studies here with the help of the Dutch state treasury. After graduation, most will leave the Netherlands within a few years, having contributed little to our employment market, but having contributed to the even tighter housing market.

The number of diversity officers at universities increases annually, and although we are luckily not yet like the UvA, political activism is also on the rise on our campus.

In recent years, many millions in tax money have been invested in education without any measurable improvement in quality. Yet, thanks in part to these investments, the TU/e is now rich in various 'coaching experts', 'skills lab ambassadors', 'guild leaders', 'career coaches', and 'trainers'. Workshops like 'mindful studying' and 'contract and salary negotiations' are offered by these coaches. Not exactly a direct boost to academic education, right? Moreover, with the last mentioned workshop, TU/e seems to be shooting itself in the foot given the current cutbacks ;).

Another typical image of the current situation is perhaps the functioning of our new financial system: Unit4. The accumulation of thousands of overdue payments and project leaders who have no access to their employees’ time reports does not exactly give the impression that TU/e has its financial affairs fully in order.

Meanwhile, everyone at the table has finished eating, and the discussion about sayings has given way to a debate about who gets to do the dishes.

‘De tering naar de nering zetten’ is a saying that hasn’t come up at our table yet, but it is an applicable expression for what lies ahead for TU/e. Although I, too, would have preferred fewer cuts to (STEM) universities, times of crisis force us to set priorities, cut away unnecessary things, and return to the essence of TU/e: high-quality education and research.

Thijs Schoenmakers is a student Biomedical Engineering at TU/e, and as the chairman of DAS, he is a member of the University Council. The views expressed in this column are his own.