by Alexandra den Heijer
Last month we took a photo of the campus research team, which – to our pleasant surprise – resembles a family portrait.
TU Delft’s campus research team – Flavia Curvelo Magdaniel, Alexandra den Heijer, George Tzovlas, Salome Bentinck and Naif Alghamdi
Campus team members and their projects:
1. Flavia Curvelo Magdaniel: Technology Campuses in Cities
2. Salomé Bentinck: Knowledge workplace
3. Naif Alghamdi: Sustainable campuses in Saudi Arabia
4. George Tzovlas + Alexandra den Heijer: Managing European campuses
In comparison with the photo that I posted last year – see post Campus team 2013 – Naif Alghamdi joined the group. In his PhD research he will focus on campus management in his native country Saudi Arabia, with lessons from and for many other universities. The following section is a text from his PhD proposal (edited for this post).
“Currently, the government of Saudi Arabia is investing heavily in the higher education sector. Today, Saudi Arabia has twenty-eight universities, of which many are founded between 2003 and 2014. This boom has led to the construction of 16 new campuses in different parts of the kingdom, costing more than €16 billion in total. These campuses are located in cities that have had no history of hosting such institutions. The capacity of new campuses ranges from 10,000 to 90,000 students. According to the Saudi Ministry of Higher Education (2014) more than a million students were enrolled in 2012. The total capacity of the 16 new campuses will be around 776,000 students, increasing accessibility of higher education to a total of almost two million students once these new campuses are fully operational. The total area of campus land is more than 11 thousand hectares. This massive area gives more flexibility for possible future expansions. Such figures send a clear message that these mega-projects should be handled cautiously for the sake of a sustainable future.” (source: Naif Alghamdi, 2014)
comparison NL-Saudi Arabia (source: Naif Alghamdi, May 2014) – note: in red “+ 3 last week” (!)
More information about Naif Alghamdi and the other team members can be found on the page CAMPUS RESEARCH TEAM.
Managing the university campus 