Headlines

For a number of years now Elsevier newsmagazine has organized anannual national survey of professors and students' views aboutDutch universities. This year's curious picture of UtrechtUniversity was the same as previous years': the professors werefull of praise but the students were extremely negative. In theeyes of the professors Utrecht University has regained the positionit had lost to Leiden as the best 'traditional' university in thecountry. Nine Utrecht course programs received the highest gradingin comparison with similar programs elsewhere. The professorsconcentrated on research and teaching staff expertise. The studentspainted a totally different picture. As a result of complaintsabout the lack of amenities in Utrecht, as well as the quality ofcommunication with teachers, five course programs dropped to thebottom of the rankings. The survey also showed that students at the"smaller" universities (Twente, Maastricht) were happiest withtheir courses.

Student privacy

Many students object to the impersonal atmosphere at universityand at the Language and Culture programs they have finally beenreduced to numbers. To protect students' privacy, examinationresults will from now on be listed on notice boards by numberrather than by name. So, gone are the days when you could sneak alook at how your classmates had done in exams.

Nobel laureate

It is Nobel Prize week again. One of last year's winners, theUtrecht physicist Martinus Veltman, seized the opportunity to venthis exasperation with some science reporters. In his opinion, thequality of information about his work provided by the media lastyear, in particular television, was too abominable for words. "As aresult everybody seems to think that Gerard 't Hooft and I receivedthe Prize for Discord" the cynical physicist said. He could justabout understand that neither the national television news nor thecurrent affairs program 'Network' had attempted to explain anythingat all about the nature of the work of the two researchers. Buteven a respectable science program like "Northern Lights"progressed no further than a discussion about the differences ofopinion between Veltman, the experimentalist, and 't Hooft, thetheoretician. Veltman's conclusion was that since televisionviewers obviously switch off their brains, there is very littlepoint in talking about science on TV. "It was a complete load ofrubbish" was his terse final comment.