Jaime Hernandez  Mendiata, a Master student of Innovation Management, thinks it is a good measure. Jaime: “Some teachers and professors at my department have a very good command of English. For example, prof. Brombacher will certainly pass the test. And others are rather bad.” Jaime, who is from Colombia -his mother tongue is Spanish- will not name the relatively bad ones as he thinks his own knowledge of English is not great either. “I won’t criticize them, but I think the test for both teachers and students is a good measure. Many Dutch students have a very good level of English. I could say they speak better English than their teachers, but most students master it at the same level. The only thing that will improve the English is practice, a lot of practice,” says Jaime.

Embedded systems
Master student of Embedded systems Will Hayes thinks the professors at Embedded Systems are quite proficient in English. “Their command of English is not an issue at my department.” Nevertheless Will Hayes, who is a native speaker of American English, thinks it will not hurt to test the command of English at the TU/e. “Just to make sure.” In general he thinks the Dutch students speak good English, some even better than their teachers, but some students, also International students, need an English test as well.

Tsvetomira Tsoneva, who received her Master’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering a few months ago, and has recently started working at Philips Research in Eindhoven, thinks the measure is unnecessary. “The professors at my department spoke good English. They would all pass the test. So it won’t be very useful.” Tsvetomira, who is Bulgarian and thinks her own command of English is not perfect but sufficient to pass exams and follow lectures, thinks it better to have English courses which people can attend voluntarily than such a compulsory test.

Recording lectures
The linguistic test that is set by the TU/e Communication, Linguistics and Technology Center (CTT) comprises a reading test and a written test, as well as an assessment of a lecture given by the lecturer, which is recorded with a video camera. After completion an assessment will be made of fluency, pronunciation, vocabulary and variation. If one or more items are unsatisfactory, the lecturer will be given recommendations for improvement, explains drs. Monique Bouman, head of CCT. In extreme cases the CTT can advise lecturers not to present any more lectures for the time being. However, this is merely a recommendation. It is up to the department and the lecturer to decide on the consequences. The recommendations will be confidential./.