Photo: Guy Ackermans
What will happen next academic year is not yet clear. This academic year sees about 500 more students in Wageningen than 2014/2015. The university can cope with that growth thanks to the departure of Van Hall Larenstein Applied Sciences university from the Forum, freeing up new classroom space. As a result there is enough teaching and laboratory space on the campus for both BSc and MSc programmes, says Fred Jonker, who is in charge of timetabling at the university.
For next academic year working parties are currently looking at various scenarios. Initially the university was planning to upgrade the Dreijen to a second teaching campus, but director Tijs Breukink has decided against the plan for financial reasons. The investment in the Dreijen was originally budgeted at 20 million euros, which was later cut back to 7 million euros. Instead, Breukink proposed extending the teaching day, by two hours for instance. You could consider started earlier in the morning, shortening the lunch hour or holding evening classes. Working parties are now examining whether the teaching on campus could be organized more effi ciently or whether the teaching day should be extended. Next year about 1500 new students will start in Wageningen. This constitutes a growth of 6 to 7 percent compared with last year, when about 1418 Bachelor’s students started at the University.