According to dean prof. ir. Jan Westra there is simply no other way out for his Department: “Somehow or other, Bouwkunde needs to become more compact. At present the Executive Board is still supporting us, but as of next year we must, just like Delft, remain at a zero level”, he explains, referring to the budget deficits which the Department has been coping with for many years.

The Department has kept its hand on the purse-strings for a while now. This is evidenced by a halt on vacancies, students -consequently- complaining about the lack of supervision, and less room for ‘fringes’, as Westra calls extra trips, while students have for over a year been paying a fee for materials they use in the workshop.

Every year there are some four hundred and fifty newcomers flowing into the Department of Architecture, Building and Planning, of whom some two-thirds come from pre-university education and one-third from other university studies. “Out of those three hundred VWO pupils some twenty-five percent drops out in the first year. We should like to hang on to them if possible”, says Westra. For this reason the Department wants to tighten the admission requirements, in order to reduce the VWO influx from three to around two hundred eventually. “This soon entails discussions about systems with great political sensitivity, such as quota.” (MvdV)/.