Distance learning No thanks Tracking great tits MOOCs aim at widening Ban on thanking God in PhD theses Tiny transmitter records access to education. | p.4 | provokes strong reactions. | p.6 and 22 | great tits’ territory. | p.18 | RESOURCEFor students and employees of Wageningen UR no 14 – 13 March 2014 – 8th Volume Into the fray Students on the municipal council | p.12 (5(6SLQGG 2 >> labour of love >> HANS + GUITAR Hans Meijer, Technical Development Studio Innovatron ‘You can make it exactly the way you want it’ Hans Meijer plays guitar. Sturdy rock in De Grens, named after the rehearsal room, the border post at Beek Ubbergen on the German border. Nice. But what is really special is that he makes his guitars himself. The metallic blue Lapwing is his pièce de résistance. A beauty! With a Wageningen touch to it: the body is made of an old teak lab table from the Biotechnion. For a really home-made sound. RK, photo GA RESOURCE — 13 March 2014 (5(6SLQGG COVER ILLUSTRATION: SVEN MENSCHEL CONTENTS no 14 – 8th Volume >> 8 >> 16/25 >> 24 STRANDED OWL PARALYMPICS CHAIRPERSON WANTED M/F The very rare snowy owl found Nutrition student Anna Jochemsen Board market to help solve shortage on Vlieland landed up on the competes for the medals in Sochi. of volunteers in societies. dissecting table at Alterra. AND MORE... 2 Labour of love guitar 4 News and opinion RUIN 8 Science If we don’t do anything about it, by 2030 the Dutch countryside will be full of 11 Resource.wur.nl abandoned barns, sheds and farms (p.9). That sounds alarming, but there may 12 Vote for a student be a silver lining to this neglect. Decay, according to Midas Dekkers in The Way of 16 In the picture All Flesh, has its own tragic, raw beauty. The romantics at the beginning of the balancing act 19th century who had ruins built in their gardens were well aware of this. 18 Birds with attitude Modern computer game makers also love to make you roam through desolate 20 Hungry for more landscapes and bombed out cities. 22 IMO I can just picture it. In 2030 you do not walk through a perfectly manicured thank God landscape. The countryside is dotted with tumbledown barns overgrown with ivy 24 Student and thistles. And who knows what creatures you will encounter there. Barn owls, 29 Meanwhile in… bats, swallows? My main message to Dutch policymakers would be to suppress the Ukrain their normal responses and do nothing! Let time do the work for you. 32 Typical Dutch inspection shelf Rob Ramaker >> Russian student talks about the events in the Crimea | p.29 13 March 2014 — RESOURCE (5(6SLQGG 4 >> news 5(&725:$17672(1&285$*(21/,1(('8&$7,21 have cost universities money, ð:DJHQLQJHQ85WRJRIRU which is why most MOOCs have 0DVVLYH2SHQ2QOLQH&RXUVHV been developed by rich American ðè,QFUHDVLQJQXPEHUVRI universities. But Kropff says this VWXGHQWVZLOORQO\GRSDUWRI trend does show that education WKHLUGHJUHHRQFDPSXVé will increasingly be provided via online knowledge platforms. He thinks that Wageningen therefore Digital courses will change the needs to invest in this kind of face of higher education. And that education, even if the business is why the university must invest in model not yet clear. In addition, he this area, argued rector Martin says MOOCs are a good way of Kropff at the Dies Natalis recruiting students and of celebration on 10 March. cooperating with international Massive Open Online Courses partners. (MOOCs) are university courses According to the rector, where the information is provided BART DE GOUW PHOTO: Wageningen is well equipped to in a series of short films on the )RXQGHUV'D\RQ0DUFK develop this kind of distance Internet. Leading lecturers present learning as the quality of its the course material, and students’ worldwide, student numbers will competition in education is education is excellent. understanding is tested using increase from 100 million in 2000 increasing. Universities will only Furthermore, Wageningen focuses questions in quiz form. Their to 400 million in 2030. That be able to do this if students can on multidisciplinary education homework is often checked by the increasing demand for education study without restrictions as to aimed at resolving complex social computer and fellow students, raises the question of how time and place, said Kropff. issues. Kropff thinks that who also discuss the lessons in universities can maintain both increasing numbers of students online forums. This approach accessibility and the quality of the :(//(48,33(' will only do part of their degree on exploits a number of trends in education they offer, in particular One form of distance learning is campus, for example the group higher education, Kropff told his in a world in which everyone the MOOCs, the free online assignments, but will follow the audience. communicates online with their courses that have already attracted lectures online from wherever they It is not just Wageningen where mobile phones and where seven million participants in the are in the world. AS the number of students is growing; international cooperation and past few years. So far these courses 9,6,7)5207+(723 2ŌFLDOO\KHZDVWKHUHLQKLVFDSDFL- W\DV99'SDUW\OHDGHUEXWIRUWKH KXQGUHGVRIVWXGHQWVSUHVHQWLWZDV RIFRXUVHŊUVWDQGIRUHPRVWWKH 'XWFKSULPHPLQLVWHUZKRVSRNHLQ 2ULRQRQ0DUFK7KH&ROOHJH7RXU OLNHVHWXSOHIWVFRSHIRULQIRUPDO GHEDWHRIWKHNLQG5XWWHGRHVEHVW 7KHUHZDVQRODFNRITXHVWLRQV è:KDWKDSSHQHGWR\RXUROGSODQWR IRUPDè*UHHQ5LJKWé"éDVNHGRQHVWX- GHQWè:HDUHZRUNLQJKDUGRQWKDW LGHDé5XWWHDVVXUHGKHUè*UHHQ 5LJKWPHDQVHQYLURQPHQWDOO\IULHQG- O\ZRUNRQFOLPDWHHQHUJ\DQG ZDWHUDQGLIFRPSDQLHVFDQHDUQ PRQH\IURPLWWKDWéVJUHDW7KDWSKL- ORVRSK\LVVWLOODOLYHRQO\QRZLQWKH 99'7KHOHDGHURIWKH:DJHQLQJHQ EUDQFKRIWKH99'-RKDQ2VLQJD QRGGHGLQDJUHHPHQW 5* RESOURCE — 13 March 2014 (5(6SLQGG news << 5 025(:25.)25:$*(1,1*(1*5$'8$7(6 Network KLV. Of the Master’s reason for the rise from the since it suggests that the job ð06FJUDGXDWHVŊQGLQJMREV students who graduated in 2013, fi gures.’ market is recovering not at the IDVWHU 45 percent had a job in the bag The increase applies strikingly lower end but at the top end, for ð$YHUDJHVDODULHVVWD\LQJWKH when they graduated. In the same to one specifi c group of graduates, high-level jobs for which VDPH period of the previous year, that namely those aiming at a PhD ambitious academics are sought. fi gure was 40 percent. position. Of that group, 58 percent This is not refl ected in the average Silvia Blok of KLV acknowledges already had a job when they salary, however. At 2078 euros The job prospects for Wageningen that the rise of 5 percent gives a graduated: 37 percent had a PhD gross per month, that is only graduates are improving. At least, positive signal, but thinks it would position and 21 percent had 5 euros higher than one year it seems we may draw this be premature to conclude that for another job. The success rate has earlier. 5* conclusion from the latest survey Wageningers the crisis is over. ‘It is risen particularly fast in the latter by the Wageningen Alumni impossible to infer the precise category. A good sign, thinks Blok, LQEULHI >>ART /LVWHQLQJWRZRRGV .((69$19(/8:ljlj What does a wood sound like? Artists a temporary restaurant set up by the and Wageningen scientists will try to Christian student societies and run transmit that sound during the Oeral entirely by volunteers. The proceeds festival in June. ‘Speaking Plants’ is a from this venture go to charity. This project by the artists Alexandra year, that is an education project for 7KUHHEUDQFKHV Duvekotte and Jillis Kruk. The artists Burmese refugees in Thai camps. See Suddenly I see trees everywhere I look. In groups, in rows, want to make a wood’s heartbeat also www.happietariawageningen.nl. alone. There is one at the entrance to the Forum, too – a audible. Bart Kruijt (Alterra) is one of the /YG1 dead one. I also notice how people bark up the wrong tree, researchers involved. ‘A tree doesn’t some get to the top of the tree, and a few are simply out of actually have a heartbeat, of course. But NjNj7,0(6 their tree. Nowadays I observe extremely selectively, and we measure sap fl ows, carbon uptake 5HSXWDWLRQ trees jump out at me all over the place. and so on. You can translate that data Wageningen UR’s global reputation fell At a lecture about learning from nature, someone into sound using technical means.’ Kruijt slightly last year, it appears from the explained that young trees only start growing when the fi nds it exciting to be working with the World Reputation Rankings published old ones in the climax vegetation have died. Then it is the artists. ‘It also means you can show by the Times Higher Education (THE). turn of the next generation: the young trees compete for something of yourself and your work at Wageningen is no longer among the light, space, water, and they all want to fi ll the gap left Oeral.’ 5. top 100 in this list, in which behind by ‘mother’. That idea hit home. My mother died a academics say which institutions they year ago. She was the last old tree. So it is only natural that NjNj678'(17 consider to be the best. Last year, I compete with my brothers and sisters for light and +DSSLHWDULD Wageningen was ranked 91-100, but space. Fortunately we have reached a new balance, formed Students are getting another chance to now it is in the 100 plus category a new climax community. eat for charity. Happietaria will be where the score is unclear. The I am not about to embrace nature as a new religion, but I opening its doors in Wageningen for the reputation scores are incorporated in was impressed. I am not so very different to trees. A fi fth time from Friday 28 March to the overall THE ranking, which also banana tree and a cabbage have 50 percent of the same Thursday 17 April.