Jasper's Day
Jasper Knoester is the dean of the Faculty of Science. How is he doing? What kinds of things is he doing and what does his day look like? In each newsletter Jasper gives a peek into his life as dean.
Thursday, 3 October
'Leidens Ontzet, a holiday in the city and a day off for the university. 450 years of freedom in Leiden, also a preview of the 450th anniversary of our beautiful university. The city and the university are inseparably linked and have benefited from each other for 450 years. Even for someone who has worked for decades in Groningen, where the city and university are also closely connected, the bond in Leiden is something special. I wish both the city and the university that this continues for centuries, though with all the political meddling in our education system, we should take nothing for granted.
Normally, I would join in the city’s festivities—attend the reveille, sing along in Van der Werf Park, eat herring and white bread at De Waag, and enjoy all the action. But last night, I had a late meeting in Utrecht and didn’t get to bed until well after midnight. The thought of waking up before 5:30 didn’t appeal, so I decided to turn off my alarm. It would have been a short morning anyway, as I have an important meeting in Parliament this afternoon that still needs preparation.
It’s a beautiful sunny morning. After breakfast, I allow myself an hour to cycle to the beach and get some fresh air. When we first moved to The Hague, we regularly cycled to Scheveningen, the birthplace of my parents, grandparents, and many generations before them. After the kids settled in and made friends, these trips became less frequent. The beach is quiet this morning. I enjoy the weather and the familiar spots I’ve known since childhood. As always, I stop by the fairytale sculptures by Tom Otterness. They fit this day perfectly, especially the statue of the herring eater. I cycle back through the harbour, my favourite place, whose smell always reminds me of the holidays I spent in my grandfather’s cooperage.
I have lunch in the city with three colleagues who represent different stakeholders in good science education in secondary schools. I represent the academic science field. The technology sector and secondary education are also represented. The topic is the curriculum reform in foundational education, where basic skills—writing, arithmetic, digital literacy, and citizenship—are set to play a bigger role. We all support this, but the risk is that these plans will greatly reduce the hours for core subjects in the upper years. For science, this means both physics and biology could lose 10% of their hours. On top of the reductions already made over the past 20 years, this raises serious concerns about the quality and size of the future intake for our programmes. Our alternative solution is to teach some of these basic skills within the context of the core subjects, something we believe can be done well and will be more engaging for students.
After preparing, we head to the temporary home of Parliament in the early afternoon, where, after the usual security checks, we meet two MPs and their policy staff. What follows is an open and very substantive discussion, where the MPs give us plenty of time. In the end, we talk for over an hour and a half. There’s a lot of sympathy for our proposal, and we make plans to help the MPs with additional information and texts for the upcoming debate on this topic. There’s still a long way to go, including convincing party members and, ultimately, the whole chamber, but we part ways feeling positive.
I finish the afternoon with a good swim, then cook dinner with the kids. After eating, I watch some European football with Kamiel and help Jasmijn with her physics homework. I end the evening by reviewing a nice mathematical derivation from one of the PhD students I’ll meet in Groningen tomorrow. All in all, a relaxing 3 October to look back on with satisfaction.'
