10 September 2015 – 10Th Volume

Accommodation shortage Open access Party Calendar

Enough rooms until 2018. | p.4 | Locking horns with Elsevier. | p.12 | All the parties on one poster. | p.16 | RESOURCE For students and employees of Wageningen UR no 3 – 10 September 2015 – 10th Volume

Long live the King! Guard of honour on Prince’s Day. | p.24 2 >> labour of love >> SUSANNE + WAR CHILD Susanne Laven, project leader publicity and recruitment, Corporate staﬀ

‘I pay for the food and have a nice evening’

She likes cooking and entertaining. And she thought it was time to start something new. To contribute to a better world. ‘Because I am not very cheered by what’s going on in the world.’ So once a month, Susanne Laven cooks for a living room full of strangers. She provides the food and the diners’ (seven max) contributions go to War Child. Fancy pulling up a chair next time? Check out www.warchild.nl/actie/suus-kookt-voor-war-child. RK / Photo: Guy Ackermans

RESOURCE — 10 September 2015 PHOTO COVER: SVEN MENSCHEL >>CONTENTS no 3 – 10th volume

>> 8 >> 18 >> 20 344 MILLION DAIRY CAMPUS BUSSEMAKER All Dutch trees have been counted. Construction is in full swing. ‘New students must have been fed up.’

FRIES I grew up in Zeeland Flanders. The bit of the Netherlands that really prefers to call itself Belgian. Most Saturdays I used to cycle to the Westerschelde estuary to look at boats or peer into the bucket of a shivering fi sherman. A breath of AND MORE... fresh air on the dyke. En route I sometimes stopped in the village of Zaamslag. 4 Wageningen has cheap rooms Because in an alley off the village square there was a fritomatic. Nailed to the 6 Disruptive thinking wall of a house. Yellow with red letters. I would gaze at the machine in fascina- 7 The fries machine tion, mouth watering. Every child’s idea of heaven. I was never allowed to put a 10 Claw disorders can be guilder into it. Maybe that is why it is etched in my memory: unsatisfi ed curiosi- bred out ty. A fries machine as a dream come true. This week one was presented on the 11 Reactions on resource-online.nl campus. No smell, no sogginess, just crisp fries obtained via a touchscreen. Even 14 PowerPoint as thesis topic the national news came to have a look. I went along the next day along with a 16 Party Calendar 2015 dozen or so other curious souls. ‘Can anyone tell us where the fries machine is?’ 24 Ceres on Prince’s Day We went in search. Old wine in new skins? Doesn’t matter. A fries machine is 26 Nadine Visser back in the many adults’ idea of heaven too. classroom 29 Meanwhile in ..... Serbia Edwin van Laar

>> Smartphone detects illegal growth hormones. | p.9

10 September 2015 — RESOURCE 4 >> news

NO MORE ROOM SHORTAGES IN WAGENINGEN

• Big increase in supply. • No shortages before 2018.

There will be no more room shortages in Wageningen for a while. Ac- commodation provider Idealis fears it may even have a slight surplus of student rooms over the next two years. After years of rising student numbers and room shortages in Wageningen, the university announced at the end of last year that 150 rooms intended for international student were unoccupied. Idealis and the university offered these rooms to Dutch students still on the waiting list. In the end only 50 Dutch students took up the offer This student is moving his stuff to the new Javastraat complex. – 100 rooms remained vacant. ‘The accommodation problem did not spring, the university built student while the increase in school leavers room in the next six months. seem to be that acute,’ concludes rooms in Computechnion and the looks set to be 6 or 7 percent. But Idealis will not be building any Idealis director Sylvie Deenen. Javastraat complex was delivered the double-digit increases of the last new accommodation in the next few An update to the Wageningen ac- this week. All in all more than 400 ten years seem to be over. In addi- years now that there are no more commodation market report of Oc- additional rooms. That number will tion, a good 300 students will be acute problems. But according to tober 2014 by Idealis, Wageningen double next year when Campus Pla- leaving Wageningen as Van Hall La- the forecasts, there will be room UR and Wageningen town council za is complete. renstein moves to Velp. shortages again from 2018. shows that there is now an accom- While the supply is growing, the Even so, most fi rst-years contin- AS modation surplus. In the report, increase in the demand for rooms is ue to look for a room in Wagenin- they talk of ‘changed circumstanc- tailing off. The number of interna- gen, despite the abolition of student es’ and forecast a surplus of about tional students was stable last year grants. There are no unoccupied 500 rooms in Wageningen in the while the number of school leavers rooms for international students at There is now a fi lm next two to three years. coming to Wageningen to study the moment and the waiting list last about the Javastraat on There are reasons for this, says rose by only 1.5 percent, compared month with students actively look- resource-online.nl Deenen. Firstly there has been a big with 15 percent in previous years. ing for a room through Idealis was increase in the supply. Idealis com- The number of international stu- as long as last year, at about 900 stu- pleted the Bellostraat complex this dents has grown again this year dents. Deenen says they will all get a

WAGENINGEN HAS CHEAP STUDENT ROOMS

pricey self-contained accommoda- student units have been completed Average rent in university towns • Only Enschede is slightly tion. in the past ﬁ ve years. Several thou- cheaper. Wageningen and Enschede have sand units will be added over the • Amsterdam tops the lot. the cheapest rooms of the nine uni- next few years, but these will most- versity towns. Amsterdam is the ly be relatively high-priced rooms most expensive. with their own kitchen. Corporations Private sector Enschede 288.71 298.75 Student accommodation Wagenin- The analysis also shows that Students renting a room in stu- Wageningen 332.52 297.60 gen is distinctly cheaper than room shortages are most acute in dent houses have not been eligible Eindhoven 363.09 348.91 rooms in other university towns, it the big cities in the west and that a for rent rebates since 1997 but stu- Utrecht 366.54 428.86 seems from a comparison by inves- lot of new student accommodation dents in self-contained accommo- Groningen 366.92 367.58 tigative journalists at Yournalism. has been built nationally. The in- dation can apply for such rebates. Rotterdam 453 431.24 nl, commissioned by Resource. crease has been mainly in the more That makes the self-contained op- Nijmegen 474.81 383.20 Lots of new rooms are being built costly self-contained accommodation often no more expensive, or Delft 485.24 358.44 in nearly all university towns, but tion, for which students can get a even cheaper than a room in a stu- Amsterdam 491.78 568.41 mainly in the form of relatively rent rebate. In total, 35,000 new dent house. AS

RESOURCE — 10 September 2015 news << 5

400 SOLAR PANELS ON SECOND SPORTS HALL OLUMN|STIJN that will enable the cost of the comfortably within that © • Helped by subsidy scheme. solar panels to be recouped in budget,’ says Henri ten Kloost- • Roof of existing sports hall eight years. The government er, head of De Bongerd Sports not strong enough. makes up the price per kWh Centre. Then they had to wait Premium sandals generated to 13 cents, doing so and see whether the solar pan- There is fear of a rift. Staff of our DLO re- for 15 years up to a maximum els would be approved too. ‘But search institutes (Alterra, LEI etc.) still don’t The new sports hall will have of 100,000 kWh per year. At we had always allowed for the have a new CAO, so DLO staff salaries are more than 400 solar panels in- present Wageningen UR buys possibility of solar panels on starting to lag behind those of university stalled on its roof. They will be electricity at about 4.5 cents per the roof in the design for the staff. Some are fearful of a split between fi rst- able to produce up to 100,000 kWh, so the subsidy is 8.5 sports hall. If it hadn’t worked class (university) and second-class (DLO) kWh a year — enough to supply cents, explains Van der Wal. out this time, we could have in- staff. the entire building with elec- In March, the Executive stalled them at a later date,’ I don’t see the problem really. Don’t assess- tricity. In November last year, Board approved the construc- says Ten Klooster. ‘I’d wanted ments based on individual excellence, H in- energy coordinator Michiel Van tion of the hall, which is budg- solar panels on the current dexes and tenure track amount to the same der Wal managed to get a subsi- eted at 5.4 million euros. ‘The sports hall for years but the roof thing? By offi cially categorizing staff as fi rst- dy through the SDE+-scheme tender process has let us keep isn’t strong enough.’ KG and second-class, we can surely give that healthy competition an extra boost. So I’ve come up with an alternative strategic plan for Wageningen UR: the Wageningen dual in brief ranking, with Premium Research (university) and an Economy Line (DLO). Premium researchers get to do whatever they >> QUESTIONS IN PARLIAMENT >> WRONG like; that might be the best thing for funda- Kamp satisfi ed with top sectors NSW registrations mental research. Economy researchers, how- DLO’s research funds are being allocated by the There was an article in Resource No. 2 about ever, focus entirely on contract research. Of top sectors in a transparent manner, concludes the number of students registering for student course it must be clear who belongs in the Henk Kamp, the minister for Economic Aff airs, in societies. Some of the fi gures in that article got Premium line and who is an Economy re- a reply to questions in Parliament about the fi - changed by mistake. Student society NSW Nav- searcher. So I would bring in compulsory nancing of research. The questions were prompt- igators actually had 51 students registering as uniforms: Economy staff wear suits (handy ed by the article ‘In-crowd at work in the top sec- candidate members for the society introduction for getting contracts) while Premium staff tor’ in Resource. According to the minister, the stage: 23 people registered during AID week can carry on turning up in walking boots or Agri & Food and Horticulture & Propagation Ma- and another 28 during the open evenings. The sandals. terials top sectors always have an open call to article in question incorrectly stated that the Economy workers don’t need to do fi eld work businesses to submit research proposals, and society had recorded 60 registrations and that either, because all they need to do is acquisi- the criteria for evaluating the proposals are fi xed they expected 40 to eventually become mem- tion and simple, cheap, computer simula- in advance. In the Resource article, people in- bers. NSW’s Hans Dekker: ‘This made it look as tions (again, good for profi t margins). Litera- volved in the process claim that the allocation of if a lot of people drop out during the introduc- ture studies might be allowed, but only if the projects through the top sectors is not transpar- tion stage, but that’s not the case’. KG literature is fairly unambiguous. Perhaps we ent and that well-informed market leaders are could even develop a special search engine assigned the most projects while SMEs get a raw >>TALENT for academic literature for them: an applica- deal. The minister writes that this does not fi t Dolf Weijers out of the talent race tion that fi lters out all those vague research with what he sees. AS Dolf Weijers is not among the top 5 scientifi c results. More at www.resource-online.nl talents in the Netherlands and Flanders. The This is what most clients want anyway: one plant researcher was on the shortlist of 25 clear result and no further ado. Anyone who nominees in August. The public voted last insists on more complexity can always up- week and a jury including Melanie Peters, WUR grade to a premium study. alumna and director of the Rathenau Institute, also gave its verdict on the scientists. Weijers is professor by personal appointment in the Biochemistry chair group and was Teach- er of the Year in 2013. He is a member of the Young Academy, co-organizer of Science Café Stijn van Gils (28) doet promotieonderzoek naar Wageningen, and won prestigious Vici and ERC ecosysteemdiensten in de grants. RR landbouw. Maandelijks beschrijft hij zijn worsteling met het systeem wetenschap.

10 September 2015 — RESOURCE 6 >> news

SIMON GROOT GETS MANSHOLT AWARD

West Seed, in south-east Asia. He ing seeds which were adapted to • Prize money to Anne van der developed vegetable seeds and local conditions. He developed a Ban Fund. sold them to small farmers in In- tropical tomato variety, for exam- • Plea for applied research. donesia, Thailand, India and the ple, which can be grown at alti- Philippines. East-West Seed is now tudes of up to 1000 metres. a leading vegetable seed business In his thank-you speech, Groot Simon Groot, who founded the in Asia and opened a branch in Af- said he will donate the prize to the large seed company East-West rica recently too. Anne van der Ban Fund, which Seed group, has received the Man- Groot has always sought collab- offers grants to students from sholt Business Award. This hap- oration with Wageningen UR in or- developing countries. He hopes pened at the opening of the aca- der to mobilize Dutch knowledge this fund will offer a few grants to demic year on 7 September. Groot in the interests of small farmers in students from Myanmar, where created a ﬂ ourishing company developing countries, said jury his company recently went into with a staff of 4000 and 12 re- chair Jan Karel Mak of the Univer- business. He also had a warning search centres in south-east Asia. sity Fund Wageningen (UFW). He for Wageningen UR: make sure Simon Groot worked in vegeta- set up 12 research stations in the experimental stations for GUY ACKERMANS PHOTO: ble breeding at the plant breeding south-east Asia, from which he applied research stay intact; company Sluis & Groot. When the shared knowledge with local horti- otherwise you will lose your strong Business Award for sustainable company was bought out in 1980 culturalists. Through this open in- position in expertise and entrepreneurship’ is awarded one he started a new company, East- novation he succeeded in develop- innovation. The ‘Mansholt every three years. AS

EXPLORING NEW AVENUES

How do you develop innovative main speaker was designer Daan oped his innovations or the art of tion too, in the form of a university capacity? That is not easy to ex- Roosegaarde, the brain behind disruptive thinking. college in which students study a plain, it appeared on Monday at such innovations as solar-pow- So how do you arrive at and de- mix of all the Wageningen disci- the opening of the academic ered illuminated cycle paths and velop new insights and products plines. year in Wageningen. an urban smog vacuum cleaner. which go against the grain? Ger- This was disruptive thinking in But all Roosegaarde really did was linde de Deijn did say something its purest form since a university The theme of the opening was show his portfolio of successful about this. A soil scientist, she college of that kind would turn the ‘disruptive thinking’, or new and products, which didn’t really tell embarked on a collaboration with carefully constructed Wageningen surprising takes on things. The us anything about how he devel- photographer Wim van Egmond education model upside down and to study soil life. That collabora- seek to approach the choice of tion came about because of a courses from a new starting point. casual conversation about what It is also disruptive because Ron- she was working on with a col- cken’s proposal is not readymade league who then put her in touch and attracts a lot of ‘yes but’ ques- with the photographer. ‘So talk to tions about its feasibility and im- each other and ask colleagues for plications. And it is precisely those advice; they’ll be very willing to ‘yes but’ questions that irritate help you,’ was her advice to the Roosegaarde, we understood from audience in Orion. his presentation, but which also The importance of meeting make clear that the proposal could with people who see things differ- have disruptive or disadvantages ently or come from another world sides to it. was reﬂ ected in landscape archi- All in all, the occasion was an tect Paul Roncken’s story too. In exploration of new meetings of his design he links landscape with minds, and ways of colouring out- machinery, he explained with ref- side the lines or thinking out of erence to the design of a Zeeland the box. And rector Arthur Mol polder with ponds for ﬁ sh produc- did his own out-of-the-box bit by tion. Roncken envisaged such en- opening the academic year on his AS

PHOTO: GUY ACKERMANS PHOTO: counters in Wageningen educa- saxophone.

RESOURCE — 10 September 2015 news << 7

APP SHARES TITBITS OF DIETARY INFO

choice answer delivering new as an experiment so Lamers is • In dialogue on the smartphone. facts. Enthusiastic users can then curious to see the results. ‘We • Creative experiment. fi nd more information on in-depth don’t have a specifi c target blogs, or even come to the campus group. Although it is quite like- in person for the Food Camp ly that young people will be at- Hapsnapp is a new app which which takes place in December. tracted to an app like this,’ says feeds its users interesting titbits of Wageningen UR’s aim is to use Lamers. ‘But I am very happy dietary information. The app was this app to get into a dialogue with to be surprised.’ Whatever the offi cially launched at the opening the wider community. Louise Fres- case, he hopes the app will be of the academic year and is intend- co was already emphasizing the downloaded 10,000 times and ed as a creative way of entering in- importance of that in 2014. ‘Wage- that hundreds of people will to dialogue with the wider commu- ningen inventions can only suc- attend the Food Camp in De- nity. ceed if they tie in with what is im- cember. A social media cam- Did you know, for instance, that portant to society.’ paign will be launched to the average Dutch person eats 60 ‘Hapsnapp is a creative ap- achieve this. Flyers will invite kilos of bread a year? That toma- proach to that kind of dialogue,’ people to download the app toes stored in the fridge lose their says Marc Lamers, director of and it is possible to play live fl avor? And that the humble onion Communication at Wageningen on tablets. RR is the second most widely eaten UR. ‘And it gives you the opportu- vegetable in the world? The new nity to communicate with people Hapsnapp can be down- WUR app Hapsnapp has about 250 on a one-to-one basis.’ Lamers loaded from Google Play of these food facts up its sleeve, all hopes Hapsnapp will provide in- and Appstore. based on Wageningen research. formation that people fi nd rele- For a week they programme ‘chats’ vant in their daily lives. with users, with every multiple The app is expressly intended

The fries machine was everywhere. Did ‘YOU GET you have a good week? PARTY POOPERS ‘Overwhelming, we could never have EVERYWHERE’ dreamt of this. I am still getting calls from four or ﬁ ve journalists every day.’

How did you feel about Pauw categorizing your machine as a useless invention? ‘Well, that kind of news is news too. If I already had 100 machines, I could have got rid of them all this week. You get party poopers everywhere. I think one day a photo will turn up of Jeroen Pauw getting fries out of a machine.’

There was some serious criticism too. It is not an entirely new idea, for instance. ‘We don’t claim that at all, either. There have been dozens of initiatives and none of them have been successful. A machine must make tasty fries, it mustn’t smell Who? Bastiaan Roest, director and it must be safe. Thanks to technical

of startup Caenator progress we think we have succeeded MENSCHEL SVEN PHOTO: What? Presented a fries now.’ machine to Wageningen UR FRIES SPECIAL president Louise Fresco this The machine has gone to Germany now for week a TV programme. When is it coming back The company Caenator presented a fries machine on 2 September. Executive Why? This prototype will be to campus? board president Louise Fresco was the ﬁ rst to taste the product. For one euro. tested on the campus in the ‘It will probably be here again from Over the coming weeks, fries fans can come to the campus, where the prototy- coming weeks Thursday.’ RR pe is being tested. (Read more on Resource-online.nl) RR

10 September 2015 — RESOURCE 8 >> science

TWENTY TREES PER DUTCH PERSON

• Wageningen team calculates tree density. • Our planet has 3.04 trillion trees.

Our country boasts 20 times more trees than residents. A total of 344 million trees. Anyone who thinks that is not enough and wants to emigrate has plenty of countries to choose from where the tree density is much higher. The Neth- erlands is not among the top hun- dred countries with the highest tree density, whether per resident or per square kilometre. This is clear from the ﬁ rst world tree density map. Forest researcher Geerten Hengeveld and Gert-Jan Nabuurs worked on Alterra’s be- half on the map, which drew a lot of attention last week through Na- ture. This specimen on the Veluwe is one of the 344 million trees in the country. The researchers made their map in the basis of regression models and a vast number are not everything. The greatest Countries with the most trees (430,000) of inventories of trees density of trees is found in Europe. 900 9000 around the world. Professor Finland is the country with the 800 8000 700 7000 Nabuurs (European forests) is re- most trees per square metre: 600 6000 sponsible for most of those 72644. That just so happens to 500 5000 ground-based surveys. ‘Between mean precisely the same number 400 4000 300 3000 2004 and 2007 I collected 150,000 of trees per resident as in Russia: 200 2000 surveys for Europe. The strength of 4461. 100 1000 0 0 our study is that we have brought According to the researchers US China Brazil Congo

together these sorts of databases there are 422 trees on our planet Russia Bolivia Mexico Canada Australia worldwide.’ Using regression anal- per human earth-dweller. That is Indonesia ysis, this survey data was correlat- ten times less than in Finland or Number of trees in billions Number of trees per resident ed with satellite records and infor- Russia, but 20 times more than mation about land use, topogra- what we have to make do with in phy and climate. These relations our country. The latest estimate Countries with the highest tree density per km2 (list) provide the basis for estimates of comes out seven times higher than tree density around the world. previous ones. This estimate was 5000 100000 The result of these calculations disputed, says Nabuurs, and was 4500 90000 4000 80000 threw up some remarkable new pretty rough. ‘The nice thing about 3500 70000 data. Worldwide there are our work is that we now know so 3000 60000 3,040,288,194,283 trees of more much more about the structure 2500 50000 than ten centimetres think at and dynamics of a forest. We 2000 40000 chest height. That is 3040 billion. know, for instance, how many cu- 1500 30000 The Netherlands accounts for a bic metres of wood there are in a 1000 20000 10000 third of a billion of them – very forest, but that is not enough to be 500 0 0 few, in other words. Russia has by able to estimate the potential CO2 far the most trees: one in ﬁ ve trees storage capacity. The number of Italy (80) Finland (1) Sweden (3) Egypt (237) Spain (103) grows on Russian soil: 4461 per trees and the dynamics there tell Slovenia (2) France (109) Germany (98) Belgium (125) England (142) Russian citizen. After Russia come you much more about the state of Morocco (207) Netherlands (159)

Canada and Brazil. But numbers a forest.’ RK Trees/ per resident trees /km2

RESOURCE — 10 September 2015 science << 9

SMARTPHONE TRACKS DOWN ILLEGAL VISION << GROWTH HORMONES IN MILK ‘Closed chains are the solution’

• Hormone injections stimulate milk Thousands of dairy and pig farmers demonstrated in production. Brussels this week against the low • Inspectors to start testing soon. milk and meat prices. Wageningen UR sells milk and pigs too. For company manager Han Swinkels of the Pig Wageningen researchers have demon- Innovation Centre in Sterksel, low strated that you can track down illegal meat prices are not a big problem. growth hormones in milk using a smart- His remedy: distinguish yourself phone. In the near future inspectors will with your market concepts. be able to see on the farm whether milk dangerous for the consumer but causes production is being boosted illegally. This health problems for the cows. Up to now Is your pig farm running at a loss? was revealed in the journal Plos ONE by re- hormone use has not been monitored in ‘We are not like standard pig searchers from food safety institute Rikilt the Netherlands because no test was avail- farms. We are a research farm and and their colleagues from Germany and able. ‘We know however that those prepa- only half of our turnover comes the US. rations are traded in Europe,’ says Saskia from sales of pigs; the other half comes The smartphone test does not directly Sterk, growth enhancement expertise team from research projects. And the drop in research ques- show up growth hormones but spots leader at Rikilt. The end of milk quotas on tions coming in is more of a problem for us that the drop changes in the body of a cow that has been 1 April this year is a further incentive to in pig prices. treated with them. The animals make an- raise milk production. tibodies to the artifi cial growth hormones Since last year Rikilt laboratories have Why is that? as well as producing more of the natural been actively working on a test for illegal ‘We’ve got a lot of long-term agreements with suppliers growth stimulator IGF-1. These substanc- hormone use. The test is not fi nished yet. and buyers. We have farmed out the manure processing es can be identifi ed in milk. Given that it does not show the presence of and we pay a fi xed price for the sale of manure. All our Researchers drip the milk onto a chip hormones itself, this test does not count as pigs are in VION Food Group’s Good Farming Star pro- containing proteins which IGF-1 and anti- conclusive evidence in a court of law, says gramme. They are sold to supermarkets with one welfare bodies stick to. They are then coloured Sterk. So Rikilt is working on a state-of-the- star. That adds value, compensating a bit for the falling with fl uorescent substances. Then the re- art test which does expose the hormone di- prices. And we have fi xed agreements with our suppliers, searchers click the chip onto a holder on rectly. This is a complex and expensive pro- which also creates a buffer for the falling prices. the smartphone and the camera measures cess, so it will only be used on suspect sam- how much fl uorescence – and therefore ples. Sterk thinks the fi rst samples will be What is the solution? hormone – there is. tested this autumn. Then it will become ‘Pig farmers should distinguish themselves with market Boosting milk production with artifi cial clear whether illegal hormones are being concepts, in closed chains so that they can make agree- growth hormones has been forbidden in used in the Netherlands and if so, to what ments with buyers about the profi t margin distribution. the EU since 2000. The treatment is not extent. RR The organic pork chain is a good example. There the supply is in proportion to the demand, there is good collaboration with buyers, and the price is a lot better. Closed chains with long-term agreements are the solution. You have to regulate the supply as a chain, because if the supply is too big someone will have to bear the losses and at the moment that is the pig farmers.’

Then there is not much point in demonstrating in Brussels? ‘It draws attention to the problem. There is a surplus of pork in the EU and the EU cannot regulate that supply on an open market. Most lobbying organizations are not asking the government to intervene in that market, they are asking for tax cuts. Lower taxes can give them some space, but a better price would really get them some- where. And those don’t just come out of the blue. It took the organic pork sector at least ten years to achieve a good market position.’ AS PHOTOS: RIKILT PHOTOS:

10 September 2015 — RESOURCE 10 >> science

BREEDING OUT SOLE ULCERATION COSTS TIME AND MILK

Dairy cows are suﬀ ering more and more from claw problems. Because ‘You see that in practice too. They cause claw disorders are a big ex- these disorders have a hereditary element, you can combat them are already the third biggest ex- pense as well as a welfare issue. So through breeding, says PhD candidate Dianne van der Spek. But it pense for dairy farmers.’ farmers are keen to do something takes a very long time and comes at a price: less milk. Van der Spek got data on many about it. And that is possible be- Holstein cows whose hooves were cause breeding companies already Mortellaro is a common culprit: a painful infection of the hoof. ‘If trimmed regularly. The hoof trim- indicate how their bulls score on painful bacterial infection of the you don’t do anything, the number mers assessed the health of the claw health. claw, which is also highly infec- of claw infections in the herd grad- hooves. Van der Spek put these da- But there is a price tag on selec- tious. Or the cows get sole ulcers, a ually increases,’ says Van der Spek. ta alongside the genealogical data, tion for claw health: the cow pro- enabling her to calculate the pro- duces less milk. If dairy farmers portion of claw health status that want to stop the rise in sole ulcera- was heritable. She found between tion, their milk production will go 2 and 14 percent heritability for six down, to be precise by 1.92 kilos of major claw disorders. ‘That is a low milk protein per cow in ten years. percentage. Environmental factors To actually reduce the amount of such as the feed and the shed ﬂ oor sole ulceration would cost even have an effect on claw health too.’ more milk production. Because of these low percentag- But dairy farmers have another es, it is very time-consuming to im- method of reducing claw diseases prove claw health through genetics. through breeding. They can also ‘If you only select for milk produc- pick bulls whose daughters don’t tion, the percentage of cows with have to have their hooves trimmed sole ulcers goes up by two percent so often. Van der Spek calculated a every ten years. By selecting bulls heritability level of nine percent for that pass on less sole ulceration to the need for hoof-trimming, which their daughters, you can prevent an indicates that this need is genetical- increase in sole ulceration, or even ly determined. A new breeding val- reduce the incidence of it.’ And that ue for ‘trimming status’ has been

PHOTO: LOEIGOEIEKOEIEN.NL PHOTO: is of interest to dairy farmers be- established for bulls. AS

HOW DO PEOPLE MAKE THEIR AREA MORE SUSTAINABLE?

Ina Horlings of the Rural Sociology ment? ‘The government of Wales most important part of a Marie Cu- • Large EU project revolves chair group. ‘Take energy coopera- has explicitly included sustainable rie project is the training pro- around sustainable place tives, for instance, in which resi- development in its policy and em- gramme. One component of this is shaping dents invest jointly in wind and so- bedded it in the legislation. It sup- a tough practical training in re- lar energy. We want to ﬁ nd out how ports networks of people seeking search skills. There are also cours- people organize and implement to put it into practice, it has subsi- es in writing and communication. Wageningen sociologists have this in their localities.’ Horlings dy funds and creates policy space Mainly in Wageningen, but there bagged an 3.8 million euro EU pro- coordinates the EU project togeth- for people to experiment. We are will also be two courses in Wales ject. They are going to train young er with her colleague Dirk Roep. looking for more examples like and a summer school in Portugal. researchers to research sustaina- Fifteen young researchers will that of successful policy develop- The EU project Susplace starts in ble local development in Europe in study cases in six European coun- ment.’ October and the young researchers a Marie Curie programme, part of tries in the next three years. They The researchers work with the start in April 2016. AS the EU programme Horizon 2020. will look at energy cooperatives in government of Wales, eco-villages The European programme Sus- the Netherlands, Scotland and Por- in Finland, an audiovisual organi- place, in which six universities tugal. They will also study how lo- zation in Portugal, the Dutch sus- work with seven non-academic cal leaders take responsibility for tainability cooperative EXCEPT Read more about the partners, is all about ‘sustainable local development. A third study and consultancy bureau Royal Marie Curie project place-shaping’. ‘That is how peo- will focus on policy: what strate- Haskoning/DHV. Gaining and ex- on resource-online.nl ple jointly give shape to their local- gies do managers and policymak- changing knowledge is not the on- ity in a sustainable way,’ explains ers use to stimulate local develop- ly objective, says Horlings. ‘The

RESOURCE — 10 September 2015 discussion << 11

Online there arose heated linguistic debate about the French fries machine on campus. Does it serve friet or patat? On our site you could also read an interesting debate about the selection of Master’s students. Got an opinion? Join the discussion! REACTIONS ON... RESOURCE-ONLINE.NL

WINNING WITH SEAWEED readers could see opportunities for fusion. For says PATAT. And a long line of respondents Arian Steenbruggen, business unit manager in agrees. Gerben explains why emotions are run- Resource number 1 carried a leading article the Environmental Sciences Group, the briny and ning high. Wageningen is close to the patat-friet about the large-scale cultivation of seaweed at Mediterranean cuisines came together in the border, which runs through Gelderland in the sea. In addition, we asked our readers for culi- form of Tzatzwierki. Take strained yoghurt, fresh- area between the rivers Maas and Waal. South of nary ideas involving sea vegetables. And we got ly-squeezed garlic, fi nely chopped fresh mint, that the term friet or French fries is the correct a whole heap of reactions. pepper, honey and, instead of cucumber, fi nely term but Wageningen is actually in patat territo- chopped seaweed. Meike Siemonsma introduces ry. Only poorly integrated people from the prov- Henriette Verstegen, for example, a fi rst-year sea vegetables into traditional Dutch recipes. ince of Brabant say friet. Luckily the machine Plant Sciences student, would like to hold a Think of potato croquettes fi lled with seaweed, itself is also the topic of discussion. This reveals sea-barbecue, complete with seaweed baguettes, or a savoury pancake with seaweed and cod. that similar machines exist and respondents sausages, burgers and salad. Femma Roscher in From Roos Akkerman we received a complete wonder whether the investment is a good one. Education and Competence Studies can imagine menu starting with creamy seaweed soup, fol- Hamburger proposes that the university is harm- making traditional Dutch mash, but then with lowed by a seaweed salad and a quiche of ‘hari- ing its credibility by investing in a machine that seaweed (zeewier). Others think there are cots de la mer’ and fi nishing up with seaweed encourages unhealthy behaviour. What’s next, he already enough tasty options. Melanie Hensen, bonbons. It was a diffi cult choice but fi nally the wonders. ‘A hamburger dispenser “made in for example, associates seaweed mainly with winner is Chris van de Kreij, Team leader Project Wageningen”?’ Anne mainly doubts whether the delicious Japanese food. Our mouths started to Control in the Agrotechnology & Food Sciences dispenser can ever become more than a gadget. (sea) water when she told us about wakame with Group (AFSG). He thought up a couple of funny But she does want to try out the ‘chip tap’. And ginger, udon noodles and edamame beans. Other recipes with clever names. For instance, he saw she’s not alone... in the days after the unveiling, the potential of fi sh fi ngers that swap their ani- there are long queues of curious people keen to mal content for seaweed. Van de Kreij thinks that try the dispenser-made friet, er patat. RR Willem Brandenburg, the Wageningen sea-farming expert, could play a nice role here as Captain Igloo. But our true winner has to be wierner Seaweed á la WUR schnitzel, a variation on the traditional Austrian dish Wiener schnitzel. The happy winner will Creamt of seaweed soup take part in a workshop on cooking with seaweed at Krommenhoeke farm in Zeeland. PROPOSITION ‘Captain Brandenburg’ seaweed sticks with tzatzweedki WHAT’S IN A NAME? ‘There is no better motivation t to submit your PhD thesis than nitzel The start-ustart-upp CCaenator has unveiled a French the start of a new job’, Weedner schnitzel ffriesries ddispenserispep on the Wageningen campus. t D. van der Spek, who graduates with a Seaweed bonbonoon wwithith UnaUnaided,id the machine makes a portion PhD on 11 September in Wageningen blackberry sauceucce off ffries in two minutes. The author is punished immedi- ately for using the f-word. ‘In the Netherlands the name is patat,’

10 September 2015 — RESOURCE 12 >> features Universities versus Elsevier Dutch universities do not want to pay higher fees but they do want all their articles accessible to the public. Negotiations with publishing house Elsevier are still not going smoothly. A total rift would have far-reaching consequences. text: Jolene Meijerink en Rob Ramaker / illustration: Geert-Jan Bruins

RESOURCE — 10 September 2015 features << 13

utch universities and publisher too that things are moving in that direction. Elsevier have been at loggerheads The publishing house is investing extensively for a year now. The universities in initiatives for ‘open’ research, says Philippe want to see everybody having Terheggen, managing director of STM Jour- access to all academic articles nals at Elsevier. And 200 of their 2200 journals from this country – ‘open access’ are already open access, while another 1600 D– by 2024. Currently these articles are only are hybrids, which means that if the author available to people with a subscription to Else- pays for it, his papers are made open access. vier. If the papers became open access, Else- Meanwhile Elsevier can see that Dutch uni- vier would lose that income. The universities versities want to make a much faster transition say knowledge should be freely available. But to open access. And the Netherlands expressly as long as they are not prepared to pay extra wants journals to be open access in their for this, Elsevier does not agree. For Wagenin- entirety; this has been dubbed ‘gold’ open gen UR there is much at stake and time is run- access. In other countries, by contrast, there is ning out, as the contract with Elsevier ends on still a lot of demand for access by subscrip- 1 January. tion, says Terheggen. This is sometimes com- The universities announced in July that bined with ‘green’ open access, in which they were considering a boycott of Elsevier. researchers are allowed to post a draft of the This would take place in three stages, said article on their own sites or in a database. ‘For Gerard Meijer in the NRC newspaper in July. the time being the UK and the Netherlands are negative publicity is far more damaging to the Meijer is chief negotiator for the universities the only countries opting for a transition to company, and could lead to similar campaigns and chair of the executive board of the Rad- in other countries. boud University. Meijer’s fi rst targetted Universities, and certainly Wageningen UR, researchers who worked as editors for one of The Netherlands wants are going to feel the effects much more the 2200 Elsevier journals. He would ask them journals accessible in strongly. Elsevier is by far the most powerful to stop doing that work. If that had no effect, their entirety: ‘gold’ market player of all academic publishers. the next step would be to call on all research- open access. Between 2008 and 2014, about 25 percent of ers to stop peer-reviewing articles for the jour- Dutch articles were published in an Elsevier nals. And as a last resort, they would all stop journal, says John Janssen, senior contract sending in articles. gold open access. That means these countries manager at Surfmarket. He adds that this is It is not easy to estimate how much this will face additional costs,’ says Terheggen. probably an overestimate. Elsevier’s market would hurt Elsevier. According to estimates by ‘You pay as a country for making your own arti- share is even higher for researchers at Wagen- the Dutch universities’ association VSNU, cles freely accessible to the rest of the world, ingen UR. The WUR library says 35 percent of there are 835 editors in the country, out of a whereas you would also like to retain access to the articles appear in Elsevier journals. total (according to Elsevier) of 17,500 editors articles from countries which are still working Wageningen researchers also read and cite around the world. Of these editors, 94 are from with subscriptions.’ He also points out that a lot of articles in these journals. Of all the Wageningen UR. And inquiries suggest only Elsevier invests a lot in online platforms from work they cite, 33 percent is in Elsevier jour- half of them would be prepared to stop doing which millions of papers are downloaded nals. And the data from Surfmarket suggests this work. In some institutions a higher pro- every day. that Wageningen researchers lead the fi eld in portion are prepared to do so. It would seem to Elsevier itself does not expect the disagree- downloading Elsevier articles. This probably be even harder to force a boycott of peer-re- ment to end in a total rift. ‘There is absolutely has to do with the Wageningen focus on the viewing or of publishing with Elsevier. nothing to suggest that it won’t work out in the natural sciences. After a rift they would have to The Dutch boycott would not be the fi rst end,’ says Terheggen. ‘Both Elsevier and the buy these articles, ask the authors for them or protest Elsevier has faced either. In 2012, Brit- VSNU eventually want to see a transition to go knocking at their fellow researchers’ doors. ish mathematician Tim Gowers launched his open access.’ So he does not want to speculate ‘The universities and Elsevier are dependent petition The Cost of Knowledge. In it he pro- about the consequences of a rift. on each other,’ says Janssen, summing up the tested against Elsevier’s high subscription But those consequences would be situation, ‘but the universities are more fees. The annual report of 2014 reveals that in far-reaching. Elsevier would be bound to lose dependent on Elsevier than vice versa.’ its academic activities Elsevier makes a profi t some of its income. Universities are not Consultations between Elsevier and the of 37 cents (before tax) on every euro. Gowers’ allowed to say how much they pay Elsevier, but VSNU resumed recently and all parties are petition was signed by 15,000 people. The fi gures are starting to trickle in from abroad. optimistic about the prospects of coming to an mathematician is not satisfi ed with the effect In 2009, for instance, American universities agreement. Given the power relations, the it has had, as he writes in his blog. Apart from paid between 400,000 and 2 million dollars question is whether the universities will get a couple of quick concessions from Elsevier, per year. But it is not clear whether the Dutch the outcome they want. Janssen believes that a he does not see much substantial change. situation is comparable. In any case, as a pro- partial deal is the best that can be expected. In In a response, Elsevier says it is absolutely portion of Elsevier’s total turnover - 7.2 billion the long term, however, the trend towards not against open access. The company notes euros (2014), the amount is negligible. The open access in unstoppable.

10 September 2015 — RESOURCE 14 >> features PowerPoint exposes academic insecurity

‘ Some people use PowerPoint for their own beneﬁ t and not for their audience.’ Researcher Brigitte Hertz

RESOURCE — 10 September 2015 features << 15

Why are academic PowerPoint presentations often so deadly dull and boring? Because of performance anxiety and poor skills, says researcher Brigitte Hertz. Academics too often use PowerPoint for their own beneﬁ t rather than for their audience. text: Roelof Kleis / photo: Bram Belloni

ou only have to walk into a confer- many words. Social scientists lead the fi eld about that, the same features always come out. ence or symposium and you’ll with as many as 50 words per slide, twice as The speaker should be relaxed, and have vision fi nd them: poor PowerPoint pres- many as PowerPoint gurus advise. And yes, too and a sense of humour. Then I ask, do you put entations. Scientists absorbed in few images are used. You’ll be lucky of there is that into your own presentation? No, that is their overfull slides and oblivious one image every three slides (the speaker is much too scary because so-and-so is in the to their audience. Literally, since probably a linguist). And yes again, presenters audience, and people might ask questions, and Ythey are looking at the screen the whole time. constantly turn towards their own slides: on I want to come across as serious. There is a big And the whole thing is presented in barely average three times a minute. A lot more often contrast between what people like to hear comprehensible English. No doubt it is good when they use dynamic slides, where new ele- themselves and what they think they ought to science, but it is presented dreadfully. Why is ments continually ‘fl y in’. What is more, few of do when they are delivering a presentation this? Could it be the fault of PowerPoint? Bri- them announce or introduce their slides. All themselves.’ Hertz puts this discrepancy down gitte Hertz has a very decided answer to that this not only makes for dull presentations but to the fundamental insecurity academics suffer question, and expanded on it in her PhD thesis also for ineffective knowledge transfer. from. ‘Presentation is a stressful thing because Spotlight on the Presenter, which she defended But this is not PowerPoint’s fault, asserts of the culture of science. In science you make a yesterday. Hertz. It is down to the scientist’s lack of skill. claim and it stands until someone else says it’s Hertz’s answer to the question is a resound- ‘PowerPoint brings an extra variable onto the not true. So every time you present your ideas ing no. The programme itself cannot be scene, and you have to do something with it. you are waiting for someone to undermine blamed for all those poor presentations. It’s a You have to direct the audience’s attention but them. Scientists are brought up to be tremen- question of the way scientists use PowerPoint. academics do not learn how to approach this dously critical. They look for the errors. Is the ‘The main mistake people make is to use it pri- rhetorically. I am quite shocked by that, really. methodology good enough, are the results marily for themselves and not for their audi- There are loads of guides to PowerPoint but no valid, is the sample representative? Facing ence,’ explains Hertz. ‘They use PowerPoint to one reads them.’ Hertz calls PowerPoint a dou- that, just try to stay relaxed, let alone funny! help them remember the structure of their ble-edged sword. ‘Everybody uses the pro- Fear of public speaking is a very basic fear.’ presentation and the words they want to use. gramme because it is so user-friendly. You can So PowerPoint offers an anxious presenter And that is not a good idea. If you want to give a produce professional-looking slides in no something to hide behind, in a sense. But that presentation, your audience should be your time. That is the positive side. The negative does not lead to a really good presentation. To starting point. How do you help the audience? side is that you take on quite a challenge in get that, says Hertz, you really have to work on How do make sure you keep their attention, terms of the presentation skills and knowledge the way you actually present the material. This and that they follow what you are saying and about audience responses that you actually should be done during university programmes, preferably remember it too? Those are the need. People too easily assume they can do it. and preferably even earlier. ‘In America chil- three things you should do your best to achieve But they are using a tool without knowing what dren learn presentation skills from kindergar- as a presenter. It is a sign of a professional atti- effect it has on the audience. ten on. I think that’s important. It is also tude to put your audience fi rst and not your- PowerPoint is actually a tool suited to increasingly important for scientists so they self.’ skilled and experienced presenters, in Hertz’s can spread their ideas effectively. Not just Herts spent years studying the use of Power- view. But she wouldn’t go so far as to forbid it amongst themselves but also to a wider audi- Point by researchers at academic conferences. for beginners. ‘I would rather take a gentler ence. And it is perfectly possible. Fortunately I Initially she asked for the Powerpoints from approach. I don’t want to send people onto the do also come across scientists who are very numerous conferences and studied the num- podium with their knees knocking. I don’t good presenters. Whose use of PowerPoint ber of slides used and the number of words want to deny them the support of PowerPoint.’ really adds something to the presentation. and images per slide. ‘But that data turned out Because many people really need that bit of Who use nice pictures and change them with- to be too static. The real point is what the pre- support, as was clear from Hertz’s many inter- out you noticing. Who don’t even look at the senters do with the slides. A presentation is a views with academics. PowerPoint owes much screen.’ performance. The point is to get a compete of its popularity to the fact that it provides a picture of the slides and the behaviour of the crutch for people with a fear of public speak- presenter.’ So she then fi lmed scientists too, ing. But that is precisely the pitfall too, shows studied their behaviour during their presenta- Hertz’s study, because the greater the fear of See Brigitte Hertz’s fi lm tion and looked at the relations between that speaking, the fuller the slides. In the worst case on Resource-online for tips, behaviour and the kinds of slides used. Pains- they are just chunks of text which are simply tricks and pitfalls in using taking work. read aloud. PowerPoint. The results of the various studies back up The intriguing thing about all this is that the oft-heard complaints about talks using academics have very clear ideas about what PowerPoint. Yes, the average slide contains too makes a good presentation. Hertz: ‘If I ask

10 September 2015 — RESOURCE 16 >> party calendar RESOURCE PARTY CALENDAR

2015 (part two)

SEPTEMBER NOVEMBER 10 Open Party @ Ceres 4 Palm Intocht @ Wageningen town centre, 11 IxESN pub crawl in the centre of Wageningen from 18.00 till 4.00 12 Villa Bloem street party, starts 19.00 5 Room Service @ various student houses 15 Dutch Night @ The Bunker 5 Open Party @ Unitas 16 Food Film Festival @ Orion 6 Bergrace by Night After Party @ Junushoﬀ 17 Open Party @ KSV Franciscus, theme: 7 Sins 7 Black Light District Party SHOUT @ De Wilde Wereld 17 Open Party Mercurius @ Het Gat, theme: The Smurfs 12 Open Party @ KSV Franciscus 18 Latin Party @ The Spot (Orion), starts 22.00 19 Open party @ SSR-W 24 Open Party Unitas @ Junushoﬀ , 25 Quiet Is The New Loud @ BBLTHK, starts 21.00 theme: Premiere of the Year 26 Open Party @ Unitas 24 Open Party @ Argo, theme: Rocking and rowing 25 Nachtboter @ De Wilde Wereld, starts 20.00 26 80s Party @ Cafe Loburg DECEMBER 3 Serious Request @ SSR-W 17 Open party @ Ceres OCTOBER 31 New Year’s Eve Parties all over town 1 Popronde Festival in the centre of 16 Open feest 7Sins @ KSV, 23.00 uur Wageningen,from21.30 till late, organized by 25 Batavierenfeest @ campus UT Twente Popcultuur Wageningen 28 Oranjebal @ SSR-W, 3 euro 3 Opening Party @ THUIS (Stationsstraat 32), from 11.00 till 23.30 3 Swing Night @ Hof van Wageningen JANUARY 2016 3 Octoberfest SHOUT @ De Wilde Wereld 7 Open party @ SSR-W 6 Animals Day Party @ The Bunker 14 Open Party @ KSV Franciscus 12 IxESN Weekly drinks @ Villa Bloem 21 Open Party @ Ceres 28 Quiet Is The New Loud @ BBLTHK, 21.00 Acoustic concert organized by Popcultuur Wageningen 29 Open Party @ Ceres

RESOURCE — 10 September 2015 partyparty ccalendaralendar << 1717

This calendar was made by Resource and Wageningen Uitgaans Promoties. Many more parties and details about these gigs can be found on www.wageningenup.nl.

10 September 2015 — RESOURCE 18 >> features

Dairy Campus takes shape

Dairy Campus Leeuwarden is really starting to take shape now. The national expertise and innovation centre for the dairy industry is currently completing two sheds for about 250 cows, as well as a new milking shed. The sheds are expected to be ready in December. text: Albert Sikkema / photo: Dairy Campus

RESOURCE — 10 September 2015 features << 19

he new sheds contain several units Dairy Campus, formerly experimental farm Nij new reception area. About 10,000 people visit in which innovative research is Bosma Zathe, houses 180 cows. In future this the Dairy Campus every year. Meindertsma: ‘It done in collaboration with compa- shed will be used for hands-on classes. should be a meeting place and a living lab for nies in the dairy sector, Livestock The expansion has advantages for the companies and knowledge institutions.’ Research and education. In the implementation of innovative research, The building and the implementation rep- new environmental shed, for exam- explains Meindertsma. ‘Because of the regula- resent an investment of about 40 million over a Tple, research is done on whether a fl oor affects tions and the amount of space available in the period of ten years, which also covers an inno- ammonia emissions. The feed research shed vation and education programme. Twelve boasts feeding troughs which can register each The Dairy Campus research programmes have been launched individual cow’s eating habits and behaviour. attracts about 10,000 since the start of the innovation programme in One of the things which can then be measured March last year. The companies working on is the impact of the feed on the cow’s milk pro- visitors a year. these programmes can be refunded for some duction. Next year another two innovative of the costs from a special innovation fund. sheds will go up at the Dairy Campus, each Netherlands it is not easy for dairy farmers to One example is an ongoing study backed by housing 60 cows. The cows which are now still expand. So there is a need for innovation in the this fund which measures the effect of ferti- at the Waiboerhoeve dairy farm in Lelystad will fi eld of livestock, pasturing, animal health, lizer with air bubbles on ammonia and green- be transferred to Leeuwarden in stages. This sensor technology and manure processing.’ A house gas emissions. The education pro- will create a dairy farm with a total herd of 550 grazing study with a large number of cows is gramme consists of three posts at Van Hall cows. A mega-farm, admits Dairy Campus currently under way. ‘The aim is to gain more Larenstein University of Applied Sciences spokesperson Nelleke Meindertsma. ‘But it is knowledge so as to make optimal use of a lot focussing on the development and communi- really a concentration of research and practical for grazing.’ cation of knowledge on a profi table and sus- learning facilities.’ The current shed on the As well as the new sheds, there will also be a tainable dairy industry.

10 September 2015 — RESOURCE 20 >> features

Minister Bussemaker in the classroom ‘ We haven’t made unreasonable demands’

RESOURCE — 10 September 2015 features << 21

Students haven’t lost the basic grant for no reason, asserts minister Bussemaker. She is going all out to spend the millions the measure has freed up wisely. ‘I want to be able to look students in the eye.’ text: Petra Vissers en Bas Belleman (HOP) / photo: Freek van den Bergh

housands of fi rst-years are now ‘The money that is freed up by the introduc- Have the protests in Amsterdam infl uenced embarking on their degree pro- tion of the student loan is up to one billion your plans? grammes, many of them leaving euros. That is quite simply the case; we have ‘I haven’t changed anything because of the home for the fi rst time. What is put it all in the tables. I understand that uni- protests. Much of it was already in the pipe- Minister of Education Jet Busse- versities want even more money and there- line and I am too autonomous to then sud- maker’s message to them? ‘In a fore question the amount. But that’s it. We denly change all sorts of things. But I do rec- Tbit I will have all sorts of wise words about want to come to good agreements about how ognize some problems, so I felt confi rmed in taking out loans and having to pay them back the money is spent. I want to be able to look that.’ later,’ she laughs. ‘But fi rst I want to say to students in the eye later.’ students: seize the opportunities you get with Such as? both hands. Do take a look at student socie- The sum of one billion includes a cut of 200 ‘Take the vast number of temporary contracts ties, study associations and sports clubs as million on the public transport card for in academia. In some areas that has really well… Your student years are a formative students. Will you manage that? gone too far. We are trying to do something period.’ ‘I am assuming we will. There are educational about that. Education should be more highly institutions where you could fi re a cannon valued in universities and in applied science And what are your wise words about student after four o’clock without disturbing anyone universities I want the research groups to be loans? because everyone’s gone home. That is a pity, more involved in education.’ ‘Go about it thoughtfully, and weigh things especially if you calculate the costs of those up for yourself. The loan and supplementary buildings are. So we say: give some thought to According to critics, in your proposed grant are intended for your studies, not for a better distribution. That also makes the legislation on participation you have not going on nice holidays. Students can also get public transport card cheaper, and we can listened at all to the call for democratization. part-time jobs. Working in a catering outlet spend that money on higher education too.’ ‘I read an angry piece by the Socialist Party. can be fun and sociable, but you can also look They want students to elect executive boards. for work that is related to your studies. And Bussemaker had not yet won the battle of the If you really want to send institutions down don’t forget to apply for funding in any case, basic grant when confl ict fl ared up. The Uni- the drain, that’s what you should do. There because then you get a student card for pub- versity of Amsterdam’s Maagdenhuis was are very complex processes involved, espe- lic transport.’ occupied for weeks, attracting a lot of media cially in large institutions. People with wild attention. ideas like that should look around abroad. Abolishing the basic grant for Master’s and There are universities in England where stu- Bachelor’s students has been Bussemaker’s What was your response to the occupation? dents hardly have any say and are very content main achievement. Opponents warned that ‘I tried to understand what the campaigners – and the other way around. The perfect sys- fewer high school students would go on to wanted, but it was not that easy to get a sense tem just doesn’t exist.’ higher education, but for now there seem to of that. I wanted to go along to the Maagden- be as many fi rst-years as last year. Busse- huis, for example, but only if there would be maker: ‘I always said: there could be a little some preparation for that and no pushing dip in the number of applications, but that and shoving at the door. In the end I didn’t go will right itself. I am pleased that there there during the occupation. They just doesn’t even seem to be a dip.’ couldn’t agree on it. There was always some- body who was against me coming or against JET BUSSEMAKER One in the eye for your critics? the subject we wanted to discuss. ‘Everyone must draw their own conclusions, ‘I did recognize the undercurrent in the pro- Jet Bussemaker (b.1961) has been minister of but I do feel vindicated. We haven’t made any test: teachers who no longer felt like the own- Education, Culture and Science for the unreasonable demands on young people. ers of their programme, and students who Labour Party in the second Rutte cabinet, since 2012. She studied Political Science at New students will have felt fed up about it, think there is too much emphasis on quanti- the University of Amsterdam, and got her and I can understand that. But this is a big tative results. But what you shouldn’t forget is doctorate there too. She then worked as a step forwards; we can now invest up to one that the protests did not resonate in many lecturer and researcher at the UvA and the billion euros more in higher education.’ parts of the country. I asked students at the VU Amsterdam, as well as for the govern- Radboud University but the grievances hardly ment. In 2011 and 2012 she was rector of Universities are sceptical of that amount. rang any bells for them. Only two German stu- Amsterdam University of Applied Science. They say it is much lower. dents there had criticisms.’

10 September 2015 — RESOURCE 22 >> IMO NO TRUCK WITH THE ‘SIX STUDENT’?

The University of Leiden set the cat among the pigeons last year when it announced that students with a bare pass (a six) would no longer be admitted to its Master’s programme in Political Science. Seven minimum, even for their own Bachelor’s students. The reason given is that this will raise the standard of the programme. But some see it as a disguised budget cut. Meanwhile the VU University Amsterdam and the Rotterdam School of Management have started selecting too. Should Wageningen join them in turning away students with a six average? text: Carina Nieuwenweg / illustration: Henk van Ruitenbeek

Bram van Driel ard Bachelor’s. Then you give the better students the Second-year student of Nutrition and biggest chance of doing well on the Master’s. But if you Health decide to really start selecting you should do so as early as I think the advantage of this plan is possible in the Bachelor’s phase. It would be ridiculous that there is more point in aiming for for students to hear only after their Bachelor’s that they good grades. Now you only have to are less suited to the subject they chose. That is a waste pass your courses to get a Bachelor’s of their time. If they have got their Bachelor’s they degree and be accepted on a Master’s should get access to the Master’s. After all, you want to programme. If this is introduced in Wageningen, there make clear that your own Bachelor’s is good enough. should be at least one Wageningen Master’s you can get into with a pass degree. That way you get a system in which get- Sonja Isken ting good grades gives you more choice. That appeals to me. Programme director Biotechnology I do wonder though if it’s a good idea to have Master’s pro- In my view it’s simple. If you say a grammes at diﬀ erent levels. In principle a Master’s stands for group of students are not up to a academic ability. How do you explain the differences to Master’s while they have obtained businesses? They want to know where they stand, too. a Bachelor’s degree intended to precede that Master’s, then the Wilko van Loon Bachelor’s degree is too easy. Obvi- Programme director Molecular Life ously you don’t think your own Bachelor’s degree is Sciences good enough. In that case you should work on the Bache- I can understand why you would re- lor’s programme until you are sure that even a ‘six’ is good quire at least a seven for students enough for the Master’s. That is the way to maintain qual- coming from other kinds of ﬁ rst de- ity in education, not by requiring a minimum grade. A gree courses where they have taken a requirement of that kind is only appropriate for people different set of courses to the stand- joining from other, unrelated, Bachelor’s programmes.

RESOURCE — 10 September 2015 IMO << 23

Joshua Dijksman suddenly stuck and you’ll have to go in a totally diff erent Assistant professor at Physical direction. What is more, you never know how someone Chemistry and Soft Matter ended up with their grade average. Did someone who For neither student nor university is needed 20 resits to end up with a seven average really do it desirable for students to choose better that someone who passed every course fi rst time degree subjects they won’t be able to with a 6.5? get much further with. But whether you can solve that with a minimum Ivanna Colijn requirement based on a grade, remains to be seen of Third-year Food Technology course. Not all students follow a straight line; in an aca- I am against rejecting ‘six culture demic context you need space for that. A seven strikes me students’. Certainly in Wagenin- as a very arbitrary threshold which allows little space for ingen it is quite normal to be individual variations among students. If the university starts volved in committees at student implementing such a rule, I think some allowance should societies, study associations or be made for individual differences. sports clubs alongside your studies. An active student life is time-consuming but you al- Raoul Frijns so learn a lot of skills which come in handy in the course Fifth-year Molecular Life Sciences of your career. I can imagine how your studies go on the I don’t think it’s a good idea to set back burner when you are spending a lot of time on a big minimum average grades for Mas- committee or board. If the university decides to turn ter’s programmes. Wageningen UR away ‘six culture students’ from an MSc programme, has many specialist programmes more students will opt to concentrate on their studies and the majority of the students instead of taking part in extra-curricular activities. I don’t come to the university just for a would consider that a great shame, and I also question BSc. If you can’t take the specifi c follow-on MSc, you are whether it will produce better future employees.

10 September 2015 — RESOURCE 24 >> student

his coming Prince’s Day,15 Sep- tember, 11 Wageningen students will line the route taken by the ‘I get Golden Carriage carrying Willem- Alexander and Maxima from Palace Noordeinde to the Binnenhof. TThese students are members of the Wagenin- gen student militia named Transvaal, and they sentimental will form the guard of honour for the Royal Procession. Dressed to the nines, in a stiffl y starched, baking hot uniform and wearing a hat, they will stand for hours waiting for the Golden Carriage. ‘Sometimes if it is sunny, students faint,’ tells Luc Meerkerk, Transvaal’s when I smell secretary. ‘Last year a student in the Rotterdam student militia had to throw up. But it is so cool to see the king and queen riding past just two metres away from you.’ It is one of the highlights of the year for the the gunpowder’ Wageningen student militia. At the march- past on 5 May they also stand along the route forming a guard of honour, and on 4 May they stand among the colonels and generals of the They drink Dutch juniper gin and occasionally fi re Dutch army on the Grebbe mountain and they semi-automatic weapons: the members of the Transvaal lay a wreath at the war memorial. Every year a group of them - carrying packs weighing 10 ki- student militia form an illustrious company within Ceres, los - walks the route for military personnel in the student society. ‘We are not strange or secretive. the Nijmegen Four-Day March. In addition, But it’s fun to keep up that image a bit.’ there is always a lot of enthusiasm for the gun training, which is organized by the Ministry of text: Linda van der Nat / photo: Sven Menschel and Transvaal/Ceres Defence, and - since recently - Transvaal board members undergo some of the initiation ritu- als for new army recruits. The bond with Defence is indeed strong, says Stef Heijink, president of Transvaal. This alliance can be traced back to Prince Bern- hard, who brought renewed vigour to the student militias in the Netherlands after the Sec- ond World War. ‘Transvaal was founded in 1900 by students who felt moved by the plight of the Boers in South Africa,’ says Stef. ‘Little is known of the early years, but it is clear that the society was dwindling away until Prince Bern- hard took the student militias under his wing after WWII.’ In 1947 he became the patron of the Wageningen student militia. Despite the attention paid to the history and traditions of the society, Transvaal’s current members don’t exude an air of military fa- naticism. Their mini-club at Ceres is richly decorated with not only German Mauser rifl es, street name signs and other military parapher- nalia, but also empty juniper gin bottles (‘the offi cers’ drink at the Ministry of Defence’), and it smells of stale beer. On the committee table stands an ashtray of cigarette ends. ‘We have “a thing” with the Ministry of Defence, but we never lose sight of the student-like aspect,’ says Luc. ‘Traditions and regularly having a drink, I suppose you could say that’s what we’re about. If the two can go hand in hand, then we’ve hit the jackpot.’

RESOURCE — 10 September 2015 studentstudent <<<< 2525

Transvaal is known for its main activity: In contrast to the other student militias in always diffi cult to make any change to tradi- shooting. The armed forces offer Transvaal the Netherlands, Transvaal is primarily a social tions in the society. But it may happen.’ members gun training with the semiautomatic society. ‘I joined because of the cool activities In any event, on this year’s ‘third Tuesday in weapons used by the army. Every year 36 mem- and because there’s a real group feeling,’ says September’ women will be part of the guard of bers take the course: fi rst theory, then shooting Stef, ‘not because I hoped to have a career at the honour for the Royal Procession. Stef and Luc using a simulator, fi nally shooting with live Ministry of Defence. At the other student mili- will be there too. For Stef it will be the fi rst time; ammunition. ‘The moment that a fi rearm like tias, by contrast, a lot of members do join the Luc took part last year. ‘From the ADO Den Haag that is put in your hands is very special,’ says armed forces.’ Nevertheless, the army fi nds it stadium, where we get changed every year, we contacts with Transvaal valuable, believes Luc. and the other Dutch student militias were driven ‘The army is always interested in highly-educat- under police escort to the Malieveld. That was ‘Traditions and regularly ed people. And there’s no study programme in really great. And that’s only the start.’ having a drink, I suppose Wageningen that isn’t interesting to the armed you could say that’s what forces. We know about land and water manage- we’re about’. ment, road building, policy … It is a big pool to fi sh in. At the end of the day, there may not be that many students who join the army, but the Luc. ‘When you go and shoot together, you get investment certainly pays off.’ up especially early on a Saturday to go to the fi r- Transvaal is a male bastion. Of the 90 mem- ing range,’ says Stef. ‘When I fi re my fi rst shot bers, just 20 are women and the ladies are and I smell the gunpowder fumes, I even get a barred from holding an executive position. little sentimental.’ Don’t they think that is a little old-fashioned? ‘I But the impression that Transvaal consists think it’s natural it should be like that, it’s nev- of a gang of trigger-happy students is incorrect, er been otherwise,’ says Stef. ‘After all, it’s a says Stef. ‘We’re seen as being a bit iffy. But we man’s world, isn’t it? There’s a lot of macho be- aren’t strange or secretive. It’s just that there’s haviour between the student militias. We are fun to be had in maintaining that image to one of the few student militias that women can some extent. And we do want to be remain a lit- join.’ A woman on the board is indeed a topic tle bit exclusive.’ of discussion within the society, says Luc. ‘It is

10 September 2015 — RESOURCE 26 >>>> sstudenttudent Elite athlete Nadine Visser can plan her study programme

Athlete Nadine Visser has just returned from the athletics World Cham- gree. This gives me great peace of pionships in Beijing and is resuming her degree in Health and Nutrition mind; it is not a good thing if a at Wageningen. In China she came eighth in the heptathlon and was study programme creates stress. part of the Dutch relay team in the 4 x 100 metres. In Wageningen she What’s more, most lecturers are MELTING ICE can easily combine elite sport with studying, she says. Her next major happy to help me come up with so- The polar ice is melting. But there objective is the Olympic Games in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro. lutions whenever I can’t attend les- is hope. Scottish scientists have sons - provided I explain my situa- found a way of getting ice(cream) ‘I’m now in my third year of study- to go there as little as possible and tion in good time before the start of to melt more slowly. They do this ing, but because I have a lot of - of- I do mostly home study. In any the course. So everything suits me by adding the protein BsIA. The ten planned - delays, I have just case, I always study the lecture really well at the university.’ new ice cream contains fewer calo- completed my fi rst year and a few slides at home. I recently got a car She looks back on the athletics ries as well. This could help solve second-year courses. This academ- and that’s really great. Now it’s eas- World Championships with satis- two of the big problems of our ic year I will be taking a course only ier for me to get from Papendal to faction. ‘The fi rst day of the hep- time: obesity and climate change. in the fi rst two periods so that I can the university. By public transport tathlon went very well, with a good Hurrah for science! prepare for the Olympic Games,’ it takes an hour longer.’ time in the hurdles: just four hun- says the 20-year-old athlete. ‘I She is very enthusiastic about dredths of a second outside the BLUE spend time on my sport almost the ‘elite sport scheme’ at the uni- Dutch record. And a personal best Sad people don’t see colours as every day. In the mornings and af- versity. ‘I don’t think Wageningen in the high jump (1.80 metre). On well. The eff ect is considerable in ternoons I train at Papendal in has any particular scheme on paper the second day, the long jump was the blue-green spectrum, state Arnhem, which doesn’t leave for elite athletes, but in my opinion very disappointing and in the jave- researchers at the American Uni- much time to travel to Wagenin- they make better provisions for lin too I lost a lot of points. Ulti- versity of Rochester. So there is a gen for my studies. That time is them than universities that do. To- mately, I came eighth and I am very physiological basis for ‘feeling available on Wednesday, my rest gether with the study advisor, I have happy with that.’ blue’, say the researchers. And day. And if I have a mandatory put my own programme together, She almost won a medal in the unrequited love makes the world seminar in Wageningen, my train- which courses I am taking and 4x100 m women’s relay. ‘We had a look greyer. er is happy to shift the training ses- when. I don’t need to achieve a cer- fabulous team and could have got a sion. But because being at the uni- tain number of ECTS and I can take medal, but unfortunately the last MEOW versity takes a lot of energy, I prefer an extra year to complete my de- handover went badly.’ AS Cats are not looking for a sense of security from their owners, British behavioural scientists at the Uni- versity of Lincoln have shown. Unlike dogs, for whom that does apply. The reason, according to the researchers, is that cats are lone hunters by nature. A cat is not dependent. Anyone else would do in your place. Cats do have com- mitment issues. ME Men cite their own work in academic articles more often than women do – by half as much again, in fact. This fi nding comes from research at Stanford University. Moreover, the tendency to cite yourself has increased since more women went into science. Citation scores determine your academic status. According to this study, there is only one conclusion: citing yourself is just a form of jostling for position. LEEUWEN ERIK VAN PHOTO: Nadine Visser during the heptathlon at the athletics World Championships in Beijing.

RESOURCE — 10 September 2015 student << 27

EPISODE 56 - MORTIERSTRAAT 14B<< Text SimoneSimone Rijlaarsdam The story so far: Willem-Jan is busy getting his life in order. Having visited his study advisor, he has now been persuaded by Vera to join her for some exercise.

Student fat KIM PETERSE ILLUSTRATIONS:

zzz, Bzzz, Bzzz. Willem-Jan’s alarm clock had Bbeen ringing for 15 minutes. Why, he thought, did I promise to go with her early in the morning? At that, the door fl ew open and Vera appeared. ‘Come on, get up. Grab your swimming trunks, we’re leaving in two minutes.’ In a fl ash, she was gone again. After a few problems getting going, they were standing under the showers at the Bongerd. Vera was explaining her swimming programme to Wil- lem-Jan and looking at him encouragingly. Their half-hour swim was almost over. Vera did a stint of back ‘You did bring your goggles, didn’t you?’ she asked. stroke in the last fi ve minutes, while Willem-Jan stuck to what he ‘Veer, I’ve only just opened my eyes, do you mind if I wake up had learned at school. He found front crawl tiring enough and fi rst?’ he said. despite his repeated urging, Vera didn’t want to cut their session ‘You’ll wake up while you’re swimming. You do want to lose short and go to the sauna. those kilos of student fat, don’t you?’ Vera prodded Willem-Jan’s This feels good, another four lengths to go, thought Vera mean- beer belly and pushed him playfully in the direction of the swim- while. But without noticing it, she had started to drift across her ming pool. lane. With a bump, she collided with the man wearing the swim Even at that time of the morning, it was busy in the pool. As well ring. At once he started thrashing wildly in the water, inadvert- as students, elderly men and women were swimming lengths. At ently pushing Vera beneath the surface. Now the swim ring was the Bongerd, the four lanes nearest the showers are always bobbing in the water and the old man watched despairingly as it reserved for slow swimmers. On the other side are the fast lanes. fl oated away. Vera surfaced, spluttering. ‘Hey, look at that man there on the side of the pool. Trunks like ‘Sorry sir, I didn’t realize. Are you alright?’ She quickly grabbed those pulled up over a fat stomach is not a good look,’ sniggered the fl oat and gave it back. Willem-Jan. ‘But I bet he enjoyed his time as a student way back ‘Watch where you are going, young lady!’ the man snapped when.’ Vera glared at him. In her opinion, you just didn’t say angrily when he had recovered. things like that. It was impressive enough that he was taking Vera beat a hasty retreat. exercise in his twilight years. ‘Come on Willem-Jan, let’s go to the sauna,’ said a beetroot-red ‘And he’s got a swim ring. As if his stomach isn’t buoyant Vera from the side of the pool. Laughing, Willem-Jan was only too enough!’ happy to oblige.

Resource follows events at Mortierstraat 14B

Ga jij op Samen stappen zetten van visie naar praktijk, kamers? en andersom

Studenten laten zich horen in Soundbites. www.wing.nl Ga snel naar Resource-online.nl

10 September 2015 — RESOURCE 28 >> student

WAGENINGEN - IXESN: PUB CRAWL They are celebrating their birthday with a gig >> PARTIES Friday 11 September from 21:00 to 05:00 by electro-pop duo CUT_ and a South African International Exchange Erasmus Student Net- braai (barbecue). Now just keep your ﬁ ngers The best parties according to work (IxESN) is holding a pub crawl in Wagen- crossed for good weather. Of course, you can Wageningen Uitgaans Promotie. Check ingen. A perfect way for new international stu- stay inside the cafe, but it will soon ﬁ ll up. www.wageningenup.nl for all parties. dents to get to know Wageningen’s many pubs. If you have been in Wageningen for long- HET GAT - MERCURIUS: OPEN PARTY; THE er, this is a fun way to get to know the new co- SMURFS! hort of international students. Thursday 17 September from 22:00 to 03:00 The new academic year brings new boards at VILLA BLOEM - 10-YEAR ANNIVERSARY STREET the societies. Study association Mercurius is PARTY not limiting its celebration of the change of Saturday 12 September from 19:00 to 02:00 board members to an internal party, but is in- Villa Bloem, a charming little cafe in a side viting everyone to come and celebrate in Het street off the market square is ten years old. Gat cafe. The idea is that everyone comes in The guys here know how to throw a retro party. blue because the theme is the Smurfs.

>> THE WORKS

‘NO ONE PREPARES YOU FOR COMING HOME’

Who? Bonnie van Dongen, MSc Health and Society What? Four-month internship at the Priority Research Centre forr Physical Activity and Nutrition at the University of Newcastle Where? Newcastle, Australia

‘I’m really proud of myself for having the guts to do this on my own. I’ll admit, before I went there were moments when I wondered whether I could do it. But you learn so much that benefi ts both your academic career and your personal development. It really boosts your self-confi - dence. Now if I fi nd something daunting, I say to myself: come on, you’ve been to Australia on your own! And to think that I almost couldn’t do the internship because there were all sorts of problems with arranging my visa.’ ‘I did an internship at a research centre that had previously conducted a lifestyle programme among boys of a lower social class. You see, boys in ‘The stereotype of Australians is that they are very laidback, and that’s lower social classes have a higher risk of having an unhealthy lifestyle and true. Dutch working hours are much more rigid. In the afternoon, Aus- of being overweight. They drink a lot of energy drinks and have more tralians go off surfi ng or whatever. Dutch effi ciency is great but some- screen time than boys in a higher socio-economic class. I studied wheth- times it isn’t good to get too het up about things. Sometimes it makes er their behaviour had changed. It turned out that these boys had more sense to go home at about 4 o’clock, to rest and start the next day skills to behave in a healthy way and that their sense of responsibility had refreshed. When I was back home, I found it very diffi cult to feel that increased.’ Dutch effi ciency again, and at the same time I was keen to hang on to ‘There was a lot of offi ce work, which made helping with programmes in the relaxed attitude of the Australians. People here never stop working. the fi eld even more enjoyable. Then, for instance, I was allowed to meas- It was more of an effort to come back than to go away for the intern- ure and weigh pupils. On those occasions, I sometimes spent whole days ship. But then, no one prepares you for coming home. If there is an sitting in the car with colleagues, going to a school, but that wasn’t bad appealing PhD place available in Australia, I will certainly consider it. because my colleagues were really nice and interested people.’ It’s just a pity it is so far away.’ MvdH

RESOURCE — 10 September 2015 service << 29

MEANWHILE IN... << SHUTTERSTOCK.COM / BUSINESS FAMILY PHOTO:

Meanwhile in... Serbia In the news: The great stream of refugees ﬂ eeing the war in Syria are crossing Hungary, Macedonia and Serbia

Commentary by Maja Tišma, Master’s student of Leisure, Tourism and Environment.

‘Serbia is experiencing big groups of refugees who pass through cities such as Novi Sad and Belgrade. They are in a bad way. The refugees spend the night in parks, under bridges or just on the street. They often lack blankets and sleeping bags and there isn’t much food or water either. There are no facilities for these people. There are many people helping the refugees. The government encourages that too. Friends of mine are distributing water and food in the city. Sleeping bags, blankets and old clothes are being collected. Serbia is not part of the EUR so there are border controls. Refugees want to reach Hungary (which is EU). Many are travelling without passports and they have to fi nd the way themselves, which they usually do with their mobile phones. They travel on public transport, so trains and buses are extremely full. Because of the large number of refugees the towns are getting dirtier. The presence of so many people living on the street sometimes creates tensions. You can feel that a lot more than, say, a year ago. People say there is a lot more theft and that women out alone get called after. And Serbia already had a lot of homeless people. We haven’t got our own affairs in order. Laan der Verenigde Naties 150 So our country cannot cope with such a large number of www.cinemec.nl / 0900 - 321 0 321 refugees. Film Film Art ON SCREEN What we are seeing now is the fi rst wave of refugees. These are wealthy people fl eeing their homeland. A second wave of poor people is still to come. I don’t know what is to be done, it is terrible. The whole of Europe will have to collaborate to help these people and reduce the problems in eastern Europe.’ LdP from 10 Sept from 17 sept 15 & 20 Sep SchoneSchone HandenHanden EverestEverest 33DD MunchMunch 115050

THURSDAYNIGHT €3 BREATHTAKING MODERN ART STUDENT DISCOUNT EXPEDITION IN 3D EXPOSITION ON SCREEN

10 September 2015 — RESOURCE 30 >> service Single to China!

Derek Pan studied at Wageningen but is back in China now. His short ﬁ lms about his experience there can be watched on resource-online.nl

(QUICK SEARCH TERM: VLOG)

RESOURCE-ONLINE.NL

Dance Music Theatre Visual Arts lessons? course? workshop? lessons?

all courses www.tvenster.nl

Theatre dance music visual arts

Kent u de talencursussen van de Volksuniversiteit? ŝũǀ͚͗͘ƵƚĐŚĨŽƌďĞŐŝŶŶĞƌƐ͛ŽĨ͚ĐŽŶǀĞƌƐĂƟĞEĞĚĞƌůĂŶĚƐĂůƐϮĞƚĂĂů͛ŽĨ͛EŝĞĚĞƌůćŶĚŝƐĐŚĨƺƌĞƵƚƐĐŚƐƉƌĂĐŚŝŐĞŶ͛͘ DĂĂƌǁŝũďŝĞĚĞŶŽŽŬĐƵƌƐƵƐƐĞŶ͗ŚŝŶĞĞƐ͕ƵŝƚƐ͕ŶŐĞůƐ͕ŽŶǀĞƌƐĂƟĞŶŐĞůƐ͕/ƚĂůŝĂĂŶƐ͕WŽƌƚƵŐĞĞƐ͕^ƉĂĂŶƐĞŶǁĞĞĚƐ͘ĞĐƵƌƐƵƐƐĞŶǁŽƌĚĞŶŐĞŐĞǀĞŶŽƉ ĚŝǀĞƌƐĞŶŝǀĞĂƵƐĐŽŶĨŽƌŵŚĞƚƵƌŽƉĞĞƐZĞĨĞƌĞŶƟĞŬĂĚĞƌ͘ <ŝũŬŽƉĚĞǁĞďƐŝƚĞǀĂŶĚĞsŽůŬƐƵŶŝǀĞƌƐŝƚĞŝƚ͗ŚƩƉ͗ͬͬǁǁǁϱ͘ǀŽůŬƐƵŶŝǀĞƌƐŝƚĞŝƚ͘ŶůͬǁĂŐĞŶŝŶŐĞŶŽĨŬŽŵŶĂĂƌĚĞŝŶƐĐŚƌŝũĨĚĂŐŝŶĚĞŝďůŝŽƚŚĞĞŬtĂŐĞŶŝŶŐĞŶŽƉ ǌĂƚĞƌĚĂŐ͕ϱƐĞƉƚĞŵďĞƌŽŵϭϭ͘ϯϬ͕ĚĂĂƌǌŝũŶŽŽŬĚŽĐĞŶƚĞŶǀĂŶĚĞƚĂůĞŶĐƵƌƐƵƐƐĞŶĂĂŶǁĞǌŝŐ͘

RESOURCE — 10 September 2015 service << 31 classifi eds Saturday 19 September, 12:00 to Saturday 26 September from 14:00 colophon 16:00 & Sunday 27 September from 10:00 Emmaus Regenboog extends opening ANNUAL FAIR EMMAUS REGEN- DUTCH YOUTH ASSOCIATION FOR Resource is the magazine and news website for students and staff at Wageningen UR. hours BOOG NATURE STUDIES (NJN) CELE- Resource magazine comes out every fortnight In order to off er more scope for a The cheery annual fair that so many BRATES ITS 95TH ANNIVERSARY on Thursday. quiet nose around the shop, from people look forward to, with dozens The weekend will involve various ac- Address now on we will be open on Wednes- of market stalls off ering special tivities based around the VHL Uni- Akkermaalsbos 14, 6708 WB Wageningen (Nexus, Building 117, bode 31). days from 10 to 2 p.m. and on Satur- items collected over the course of versity of Applied Sciences in Velp, POBox 409 6700 AK Wageningen. days from 12 to 4 p.m. That’s two the year. Venue: Herenstraat 9, Wa- such as a symposium on Saturday Secretariat: Thea Kuijpers, hours more shopping fun a week! geningen called ‘Adventuring into Nature’, mu- [email protected], 0317 484020 Website: www.resource-online.nl. You’ll fi nd we have everything in the sic and children’s activities. On Sun- ISSN 1389-7756 way of items cast off by a wealthy so- Thursday 10 to Wednesday 23 Sep- day, you can take an excursion every Editorial staff ciety, such as furniture, equipment, tember incl. hour during ‘Nature Every Hour’. Ad- • Edwin van Laar (editor-in-chief) books, clothing, curiosities and FILMS FOR STUDENTS mission is free for young people [email protected], 0317 482997 • Roelof Kleis (ecology, social household goods. Location: Heren- Movie W, Wageningen’s art-house aged 11 to 25 years incl. sciences, economy), straat 9, Wageningen. cinema, is showing: Citizenfour, a CHECK OUT THE FULL PROGRAMME OF FESTIVITIES [email protected], 0317 481721 • Koen Guiking (web editor) HTTP://EMMAUSWAGENINGEN.NL/ political docu-thriller about Edward AT WWW.NJN.NL/SYMPOSIUM [email protected], 0317 488190 Snowdon; Menino, an enchanting an- • Linda van der Nat (students, education) Retro-bike for sale: racing bike imated fi lm about a country boy who Saturday 19 & Sunday 20 October [email protected], 0317 481725 • Rob Ramaker (nutrition, fi sheries), Gazelle Champion Mondial from 1977 goes in search of his father in the big TWO DAY WORKSHOP ‘URBAN [email protected], 0317 481709 In good condition, size 58–59, col- city; Kurai Kurai, a psychological AGRICULTURE - THE NEXT FRON- • Albert Sikkema (plant sciences, animal sciences, organization) our ivory, 10 gears, tyres, Reynolds journey through the steppe (high TIER’ [email protected], 0317 481724 513 frame, Sugino crank set, Wein- grasslands) of Kyrgyzstan; Geronimo, If you’re keen to engage in a work- mann brakes, etc. Info: Bas Blok, 06- a vibrant drama about emotions boil- shop on urban agriculture and the in- Freelance journalists Romy Appelman, Jeroen Bok, Alexandra 47081972 ing over among young people who tersection of food and urban plan- Branderhorst, Stijn van Gils, ir. Yvonne de use music and dance as their re- ning, join the Wageningen workshop. Hilster, Milou van der Horst, Amy Jansen, Nicole Janssen, Iris Keizer, Jan-Willem Wageningen45 seeks volunteers lease; Schneider vs. Bax, the latest HTTP://WWW.ISOCARP2015.ORG/THEMES/WAGEN- Kortlever, Sander de Kraker, Carina For various projects, we are looking fi lm by Alex van Warmerdam, a wry INGEN OR CONTACT HELENA AT: HHEYNING@ Nieuwenweg, ir. Rik Nijland, Kim Peterse, XS4ALL.NL Camilla Ponte, Lucas du Pré, Simone for volunteers to help with organiza- (polder)western. Rijlaarsdam, Mary Shrestha, ir. Joris Tielens, tion. Throughout the year, the Dutch WWW.MOVIE-W.NL Kees van Veluw, Veronika Wehner, Hoger National Committee for the Com- Thursday 5 November, 13:00-22:30 Onderwijs Persbureau Design memoration of Capitulations 1945 Wednesday 23 September, 13:30– NZV ANNIVERSARY ‘THE CATTLE Geert-Jan Bruins (Wageningen45) holds numerous ac- 20:00 FARMER IN THE WORLD’ Photography Guy Ackermans, Sven Menschel, tivities: educational school projects, SYMPOSIUM BY THE STUDY ASSO- To mark its 85th birthday, the Dutch Aart-Jan van de Glind various kinds of lectures, the Libera- CIATION THE CATTLE FARMERS: Zootechnics Association (NZV) is Illustrations Guido de Groot, Studio Lakmoes, tion event in Wageningen and more. ‘CATTLE FARMING EXAMINED. holding a symposium focusing on the Kim Peterse, Henk van Ruitenbeek INFO: WWW.WAGENINGEN45.NL AGRICULTURAL BUSINESS IN A key role of the animal scientist in ad- Translators dressing world issues. There will be Clare McGregor, Susie Day, Clare Wilkinson CHANGING ENVIRONMENT’ (IN Printer agenda DUTCH) debates on such topics as food secu- Tuijtel, Hardinxveld-Giessendam From milking by hand to a fully auto- rity and smallholders vs. production Editorial board ir. Martijn de Groot (chair), prof. Anton Sunday 13 September, 16:30–19:00 mated milking robot and from ‘sim- for the market. The afternoon con- Haverkort, ir. Tia Hermans, ir. Marianne JAZZ JAM SESSION IN DE ZAAIER ple farmer’ to ‘agricultural business cludes with a networking drinks and Heselmans, dr. ir. Patrick Jansen, Anneloes Reinders, Simone Ritzer, dr. Margit van CAFE owner’. Since the Second World War buff et event. Venue: Hotel de Wagen- Wessel. [email protected] Keyboards, bass (guitars) and drums cattle farming has been developing ingsche Berg, Gen. Foulkesweg 96. Subscriptions are provided, as well as a small at a rapid pace. The symposium out- ENROLMENT AND INFO: WWW.NZVNET.NL A subscription to the magazine costs €58 sound installation for singers and in- lines current developments in cattle (overseas: €131) per academic year. struments that need amplifi cation. farming and discusses the road to Cancellations before 1 August. Everyone is welcome, experienced the future as seen from the perspec- Advertising and novice musicians alike. Or you tive of the cattle farmer, trade and External: Bureau van Vliet, T 023-5714745 Deadline for submissions: one [email protected] can just come along and listen. industry, politics and science. Dead- week before publication date Internal (reduced rate): Thea Kuijpers, [email protected]. T 0317 484020 WWW.JAZZINWAGENINGEN.NL line for enrolling: 16 September. (max. 75 words) WWW.NZVNET.NL Email: [email protected] Publisher Marc Lamers, Corporate Communications & Marketing Wageningen UR

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10 September 2015 — RESOURCE >>TYPICAL DUTCH ILLUSTRATION: HENK VAN RUITENBEEK HENK VAN ILLUSTRATION:

Dutch design: the toilet

When we arrive in a new country and intend to study and live there for a while, some of us will pay attention to a fairly important and essential item: the toilet.

Toilets in the Netherlands are unique. First, we have to pay to use a public toilet in the Netherlands. In some countries, the use of public toilets is free because these countries consider it as a natural human need. I found it interesting when my friend bought food at a fast food restaurant in the Netherlands and they gave a kind of voucher for using the toilet. In my country, If we want to identify we have ‘pay toilets’ as well, but this kind of voucher is new to some of us, and so is paying into a any diseases we may suﬀ er machine instead of giving cash to the person in charge. Secondly, the Dutch toilet, which does not from, the shelf in a Dutch use much water, turns out to be a different shape. The reason for its unusual design is interesting. toilet makes it easier If we want to identify any diseases we may be suffering from, the shelf in a Dutch toilet makes it easier to examine our faeces or urine, or to take a specimen for analysis. Toilet design may be a simple thing, but when I think of the purpose behind it, I get the impression that the Dutch pay attention to detail. No doubt there are many other unique features of this country that will be interesting to learn about. Riana Wulandari, MSc student of Food Safety, from Indonesia

Do you have a nice anecdote about your experience of going Dutch? Send it in! Describe an encounter with Dutch culture in detail and comment on it brieﬂ y. 300 words max. Send it to [email protected] and earn twenty-ﬁ ve euro and Dutch candy.