Pauline van der Meer Mohr

Rotterdam! On Saturday, after days of anxiety about funding issues, we finally pitched to the executive board of the European Universities Student Games (EUSA) in Cordoba, Spain. Against some heavy competition from Poland, we came out cheerfully as hosts of the 2nd games in 2014 to crown our centennial celebrations. 4000 student sporters will compete [...]

It is well known that France is embarrassed by its performance in the world academic league tables (there are only 5 French universities in the THE top 200, versus 12 Dutch universities). The Sarkozy government’s response is interesting. It is offering six or seven endowments of one billion euros to new comprehensive universities, with the [...]

Erasmus Magazine has surveyed students and staff to gauge support for the alliance between Erasmus, Delft and Leiden. Not surprisingly, 57% of respondents expressed little or no interest in a merger, whereas the other 43% indicated some degree of interest in and support for the alliance, ranging from ‘interesting thought’ to ‘what are you waiting [...]

On 16 November, HOPE (Holland Centre for Entrepreneurship, the joint venture between Erasmus, Delft and Leiden) organised a meet the dragons event for 500 participants: students, starters, business angels, dragons, faculty and international guests. It was a phantasmagorical success. Please follow this link to learn more: http://www.sprout.nl/81/34891/startup/duitse-startup-wint-europese-meet-the-dragons.html

Breaking news this week is KNAW President Robbert Dijkgraaf’s imminent departure to Princeton, to head up the prestigious Institute for Advanced Study. With such a density of Nobel laureates, who can blame this scientific top talent to leave the Netherlands in search of pastures green? Immediately, the debate flares up about brain drains and the [...]

The Dies Natalis has come and gone, new political leaders have been appointed in Italy and Greece, Saab has been saved by the Chinese and our campus is singing to the rythm of construction works. It’s never a dull moment. In the meantime, the IDO team is working to complete a profiling paper indicating which [...]

Today we are celebrating the university’s 98th birthday and I hope that we will draw a large crowd, not only because the aula hall otherwise looks empty, but specifically because we have an interesting line-up of speakers. This year’s focus is on Erasmus School of Law (320 staff and 4,500 students). Erasmus School of Law [...]

It has been a week with many evening functions, great networking opportunities as always. Especially in view of the many needs we have for external funding. Erasmus University College, the new student pavillion, our Van der Mandele Square, the centennial celebrations. Universities are like the little hungry caterpillar from the children’s book “Rupsje Nooitgenoeg”. Last [...]

Lunchmeeting today with the team that prepares our bid for the 2nd European University Games in 2014. Imagine having 4000 European student sporters coming to Rotterdam in the year of EUR’s centennial celebrations. We have launched a bidbook in September, and I am heading up a delegation to Cordoba later this month, to present our [...]