Presenting the European campus… but not today

by Alexandra den Heijer

This morning I was looking forward to present my research “The European Campus: an important asset for Europe 2020” in Brussels, for the European Commission (ERAC Working Group on Knowledge Transfer).

But the morning news already showed early signs of the record-breaking traffic jams in Belgium, due to the heavy snowfalls. Maps on the Belgian newspaper website of De Standaard were very graphic (see photo left).

The presentation will be rescheduled, but the hand-out can already be found under DOWNLOADS. The most important message of my presentation is summarized below, based on our research document “Managing the European campus – attracting and accommodating Europe’s knowledge capital” (Dirk Jan van den Berg, president TU Delft and Alexandra den Heijer, associate professor Faculty of Architecture, TU Delft).

“We strongly believe – based on research – that improving (the management of) the European campus is a precondition for attracting and retaining Europe’s knowledge capital, for more competitive EU universities in the global battle for brains and for supporting innovation in the EU economy (strategy “Europe 2020”). In the current European context the university campus can be perceived as a (potential) problem as well as an asset for European universities (and consequently for Europe’s knowledge economy).” The presentation elaborates on both.