It was only two years ago that the department decided to continue teaching in Dutch in the Master’s program for the time being. This decision contrasted with the earlier decision adopted by the three universities of technology for all Master’s programs to switch to English as soon as possible. Architecture, Building and Planning argued: English would not lead to higher study results and would be too much of an organizational bother.

“The world is becoming more and more international. Our students go abroad more often and increasing numbers of foreign students come here”, Program Director dr. ir. Faas Moonen comments on the decision to switch to English after all. The decision has been laid down in the department’s mission document, which is being finalized by the department board now.

A secondary object is to attract more foreign students. In ten years twenty percent of the Master influx should come from abroad. At present that percentage is much lower. The Top Up Master, the English-language Master of the department of Architecture, Building and Planning, specially designed for foreign students, attracted merely five students this year. However, we must observe that Architecture, Building and Planning are excluded from grants for foreign students, says Moonen, which makes it very expensive indeed for foreigners to come and follow a Master’s program at this department.

The whole switch to English is hindered by a number of problems that are specific for this program, by the way. The world of construction is strongly regional - even in Belgium, just across the border, building is done in a different manner. As a result, the Dutch construction world has a lot of jargon without an English equivalent. How one is to deal with this predicament is still being studied, Moonen informs us./.