It’s been too long since I last posted a blog entry, my apologies. I have been travelling to Beijing (to sign MOUs with Renmin university, Peking university and pay courtesy calls to some other university partners). I was reminded of this song “there are 9 million bicycles in Beijing, that’s a fact”. Well, most of these bicycles have been replaced with expensive cars since the lyrics of this song were written. An unbelievable difference with the city I last visited a decade or so ago. Following China, I joined Mayor Aboutaleb to Singapore (where he addressed the Centre for livable cities on urban development in Rotterdam). Since returning, life has been hectic with preparations for today’s accreditation committee (which is conducting an audit of our quality control processes) and of course with our performance commitments which will be part and parcel of the university’s so-called Profiling Plan (submission deadline 1 May). If all of this sounds slightly bureaucratic, well, I guess it is. But on the positive side, it is always a good thing to critically review one’s processes and procedures, and learning from external feedback is valuable, too.