The new Academic year is about to start, so it is time to resume these blog entries. The trouble with not logging in for a while is that my screen looks like Spamalot – 2,600 reactions is more than I could imagine in my wildest dreams: there must be at least one serious reaction among the spam? To do list: buy spam filter. The summer was hot in more than one way. As I was enjoying a desert walk in Death Valley, California, I learned about the upcoming article in NRC Handelsblad about the partnership between Erasmus, Delft and Leiden University. The trouble with these publications is that they never do justice to what is happening in reality, and therefore they lead to a lot of questions, assumptions, and concerns. We received a number of reactions, ranging from “this is a ludicrous idea driven by pompous egos” to “this is probably unavoidable considering international developments” and “what a great idea, this should have been done 20 years ago.” What “this” is, however, is still unclear. We all announced last year that we would consider forms of more far-reaching collaboration. In the meantime, the three universities have been working hard behind the scenes to develop the ‘business case’ for teaming up. Now’s the time to start testing this case with all relevant parties: staff, students, politicians, society at large. So that is where I will be spending most of my time in the next 9 months. In May 2012, universities have to inform secretary of state Halbe Zijlstra how they each intend to sharpen their profile. We will advise him as regional cluster instead of individual institutions. This is then the natural deadline we will be working towards in determining the scope and structure of our partnership. Work in progress, so to speak.