Translation in progress
More than a year before he was due to retire, Rob Mudde is stepping down as vice-rector magnificus and vice-president of education. The council member says he has been struggling with health problems since the beginning of last year. The supervisory board will look for a successor in the coming months. Mudde will remain as professor and will teach.
In the statement that the Executive Board (CVB) released on Thursday afternoon, Mudde says that he realizes that his departure is unfortunate ‘during this period in which social safety deserves all our attention’. Mudde is absent from meetings on social safety more often than the other members of the Executive Board. In the two months since the Inspection Report was published, his fellow directors Marien van der Meer and Tim van der Hagen often spoke.
In the statement, Mudde emphasizes that he did not make this difficult decision overnight [is] gone, but this has been going on for a long time.’ From the email: “To this day, my work feels like a great privilege. But partly based on medical advice, I can only conclude that I can no longer fulfill my role with the same energy.” He did not provide further details about his health.
‘We are going to miss our buddy’
In a meeting of the works council (or) and the student council (sr) on Thursday, CVB member Marien van der Meer said he was touched. “Rob is a very nice person who pays a lot of attention to students and colleagues. We are going to miss our buddy.” Mudde himself was unable to attend that meeting.
In that role, Mudde is known for his sometimes harsh statements about students. According to him, they should ask themselves more often why they had come to university in the first place. “I think most students work less hard than most scientists here,” he told Delta in 2016 when he resigned as education director.
According to him, students ‘didn’t pay enough attention […] that learning is easier when they are young. They are exempt from working so that they can study.’ That exemption is a privilege that must be met with ambition, according to Mudde.
Something other than excellence
In the dual role of vice-rector magnificus and vice-president of education in the Executive Board, he moderates his tone. Unlike his predecessor Anka Mulder, he sees little point in the entry requirement of a 7 for mathematics B on the final list. Nevertheless, ambition remains important to him, he told Delta upon his appointment. “I maintain that students who come to Delft should be ambitious students. That is something other than excellence.”
During the corona pandemic, Mudde is shaping the transformation to the online forms of education that were introduced. Student welfare is also moving higher up his agenda. For example, he repeatedly calls on students to listen to what the ‘authorities want from you’. He does his best to maintain student contact, although a hint of encouragement for ambition à la Mudde is not far away: “Are you tired of Netflix after two days? Then grab your study book and Collegerama. Take advantage of this time.”
Working weeks of more than seventy hours
Mudde also demands a lot from herself. In 2017, before he became a CVB member, he told Delta that he did not mind at all that he had been working more than seventy hours a week for fifteen years. “I have a high workload and I don’t necessarily experience it as a high workload. I hobby and get paid. That’s a personal tic.”
‘I look forward to welcoming a new group of students one more time’
Two weeks after that conversation, a letter from the then future vice-rector magnificus appears on the Delta website. Mudde focuses on the students. “I am eagerly awaiting the student director who says: “Indeed, it could be a bit more ambitious, Delft students do and-and!” The key words according to him: ambition, discipline, drive.
Do not defend with fire and sword
Mudde also regularly intervenes in non-education-related topics. When the nuisance caused by students in the Wippolder district reached a peak in 2021 due to the many lockdowns, Mudde called their behavior ‘antisocial’. “As a university we believe that this is not possible, I do not hide that. I’m not going to defend students with fire and sword, really not. Sometimes they don’t deserve that.”
In the interview, he calls on Delft residents to report if the nuisance escalates. “Then we will talk to our students. If things really get out of hand, I’ll put on my nice suit and visit myself.”
But Mudde prefers to see initiative from the students themselves. He believes that students should ‘pick up the gauntlet themselves’, he emphasizes in the monthly meetings with the student council. For example, when it comes to inappropriate behavior at student associations: “It is especially powerful for change if initiatives (ed. to tackle undesirable behavior) come from the students themselves.” Ambition and self-reliance are his top priorities.
Mudde will remain in place until after the start of the coming academic year. He says about this in the statement from the Executive Board: “I would say the start of the academic year […] don’t want to miss it for anything. I look forward to welcoming a new group of students to our university one more time.”
