Structure of education and governance on the university

Understanding how the education and management of the university works is not easy. However, many students can contribute to educational and political issues. For some tasks, you even get paid. The problem is that many students don't know where to start and what their options are. This page explains how it all works.

Education

The Program Committee (OC-ST)

The OC-ST is the program committee of the department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry. From Japie, the Coordinator of Educational Affairs always takes place in the OC-ST. Additionally, there are five other students and six teachers representing the department. This means that the students have half of the votes within this committee. The OC-ST meets once a month on all kinds of matters concerning education. For example, new courses or changes to courses are approved here. The PER (Program and Examination Regulations) is also established in the OC-ST. The PER contains all rules and agreements regarding education and exams. Students can apply for this committee at the end of the academic year. If you are interested in the committee, pay attention to your mailbox.

The Joint Program Committee (JPC)

The JPC is the umbrella committee for all courses at TU/e. The JPC is split into the Bachelor's room (JPC-B) and Master's room (JPC-M). Both the JPC-B and the JPC-M have one student and teacher representative from each program committee, so you need to be a member of the OC-ST to join on behalf of our department. There are only Bachelor's students in the JPC-B and only Master's students in the JPC-M. This means that there are around 20 to 25 members in each separate room. TU/e broad issues concerning education are discussed in the JPC. This includes matters such as the part of the PER that is common to all programs, a new set-up for the basic courses or the educational vision of the TU/e. The JPC-B meets every month and the JPC-M meets less frequently.

Lecture follow-up group (CoVo)

A CoVo is a group of students, appointed by the Coordinator of Educational Affairs of Japie in consultation with a teacher, that gives feedback on a course to the responsible teacher. In this way, feedback can be given on courses from the start of the quartile, so that any improvements can still be made during the current quartile. Almost every course has a CoVo. If you are interested in joining a CoVo, you can send approach the Coordinator of Educational affairs or indicate this during the first week of a new quartile.

Governance

The Department Board (FB-ST)

The departmental board consist of the dean, the managing director and the vice-dean. At the moment these are Kitty Nijmeijer, Ruud van den Donk and Emiel Hensen. The departmental board does the general management of the department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, both for research and education. The director of education (John van der Schaaf) and the student advisor (Chairman of Japie) give advice to the board.

The Department Council (FR-ST)

The department council, composed of five students and five employees, represent both the student and employee population within our department. Their task is to monitor, discuss and advise the department board on their policies. This mechanism ensures that the department board is provided with continuous and effective feedback and allows for all layers within the department to (indirectly) influence the final policies via this process of representation. To fulfil this task, the council meets with the departmental board once per month to discuss and advise them on their policies and plans. To an extent, they have a say in the financial plan, the restructuring of the bachelor and the appointment of a new dean, just to name a few. Are you curious after reading this? Or are there certain points of attention that you want them to know? Do not hesitate to reach out to them at this email address. There are elections every year in December to elect the new student delegation of the department council.

University Council (UR)

The university council is a participation council for students and staff of all departments. They talk about university broad cases, such as housing, the Bachelor College, numerus fixus and many more subjects. The students in the university council are organized in different fractions, which is similar to political parties. The members of the university council each have their own portfolio of subjects.

The Executive Board (CvB)

The executive board of the university is responsible for all university matters, in research as well as in education and in practical matters. The executive board consists of the president (Robert-Jan Smits), the rector magnificus (Silvia Lenaerts), the vice president (Patrick Groothuis) and the secretary (Eric van der Geer-Rutten-Rijswijk).