All ER&I’s educational activities, including timetabling and the development of distance learning, will be transferred to the Education Institute (OWI). Another part of ER&I will be merging with Wageningen International to form the Policy Preparation and Corporate Accounts group. Wageningen Graduate School will remain responsible for the university’s graduate schools. A new Value Creation department is also being set up; the search has started for a new director for this department.
Interim
An interim director will be appointed for the new education department. The current OWI director, Tiny van Boekel, who will be retiring next year, will be succeeded by a professor as director who will be responsible for both the policy aspects and operational aspects of teaching at the university.
The Executive Board has decided on these changes as it wants to streamline policy on education and innovation. The board currently receives advice on educational matters from both the OWI director Tiny van Boekel and the ER&I director Frank Bakema. The board will now be combining policy and implementation in one place.
Value Creation
In the strategic plan, the Executive Board called Value Creation the third core activity. It wants more coordination and alignment between businesspeople, suppliers of research facilities, investors and supporting services in order to generate more businesses and knowledge companies.
The employee participation body still has to give its opinion on the restructuring.