Programme TU Delft | Campus Rotterdam

The Campus Rotterdam programme team has had a busy few months. We would like to give you a brief update on how things stand and invite you to join us in discussing and thinking about what we need to do next to land successfully in Rotterdam. How? Scroll down to find out more...

Where are we now:

Before the summer, the Campus Rotterdam Programme Team presented a first draft Development Plan to the Executive Board (EB). The same team then fleshed out the Development Plan during the summer months and in its current form, the plan provides concrete insights into our envisaged growth strategy where possible. Following this strategy, the campus in Rotterdam will incrementally and gradually grow into a fully-fledged campus by 2040. The university, however, cannot accomplish this on its own.

Since TU Delft has expressed its ambition to eventually establish a presence in Rotterdam as well, it has teamed up with the city of Rotterdam, the city of Delft and various parties in Rotterdam and the region. We are currently working on fleshing out our shared growth ambition together. 

After a period of probing, surveying and mapping out wishes and opportunities, a letter of intent was signed in the summer (8 July), in which the city of Rotterdam and TU Delft committed themselves to developing plans for the expansion to Rotterdam over the next year. Together, we will examine the feasibility of our growth ambition and, step by step, we will explore funding avenues. In today’s new political reality and faced by the government’s recent cuts in education and science, this will be challenging. Our ambitions, however, will remain unchanged.  

Along with our faculties and services, as well as partners in Delft and Rotterdam, we are working on a proposition and joint case that we will soon present to various potential stakeholders to discuss whether they too wish to lend their financial backing to solving this social challenge.

Step by step

The expansion to Rotterdam is a logical and important step. To meet the challenges of the future, we will need both more and different engineers. The planned gradual expansion to Rotterdam will make a significant contribution to sourcing these engineers.  

At the same time, the move calls for new mission-driven degree programmes in addition to the existing programmes in natural sciences, construction and design engineering. Moreover, we will need research and innovations that will further prepare our future engineers for the challenges arising from major transitions such as energy, health, digitalisation, raw materials and climate adaptation. Rotterdam is the ideal location for such growth. Together, we can make an impact and lead the way in changing society for the better. 

An important first step we are taking now is developing new degree programmes. Together with the faculties, we are working on three new degree programmes with the following working titles: 'Health & Tech', Climate & Energy Systems Engineering' and 'Resilient Living Environment'. As things stand, the first Delft degree programmes in Rotterdam will start in 2027, and ideally we will start advertising these new programmes to prospective students a year earlier (in 2026). This will give us the time and space needed to make the necessary preparations.

At the same time, we are exploring potential sites in Rotterdam for these new degree programmes. The aim is to start small. To this end, we are exploring a number of possible sites that may be available at or near our Rotterdam partners in the short term. Discussions are under way with several educational institutions and other property owners in the city about our options for the first phase. This alleviates our urgent need for investment and gives us time to continue exploring sites for a full-fledged campus by 2040. After all, it is certainly possible that TU Delft | Campus Rotterdam will be based in various locations across the city rather than becoming a single, large campus. 

In addition to setting up new degree programmes in Rotterdam, we are currently taking a close look at which existing activities will eventually move, in whole or in part, from Delft to Rotterdam. It is too early now to go into specifics, other than stressing that we are working on various scenarios, in which we would also like to closely involve you - our TU Delft community.

Taking the next step together

Together with the TU Delft community - and that includes you - we would like to take a closer look at what steps we need to take to shape the future of TU Delft | Campus Rotterdam. Do you have thoughts or suggestions on how best to realise our ambitions, or do you have questions or concerns about the expansion to Rotterdam? Please feel free to share any thoughts, suggestions, questions or concerns. In the autumn and beyond, we will organise several meetings, for which you will soon receive an invitation. During these sessions, we will give you a complete update, but we would also like to hear your views on the planned expansion to Rotterdam.

We will also keep you updated on progress in the interim. To find out more, you can download a glimpse into the developments of the new campus via the link. You also find here a link to a recent letter from the Rotterdam Municipal Executive to the Rotterdam City Council (only available in Dutch). Both documents provide more information on where we stand together now and how we continue to shape our shared ambition.  

Please note: The Development Plan was submitted to the EB before the summer. The draft Development Plan is currently being reviewed by the participation council. It is a living document that will be updated and amended going forward. The original document, for example, is yet to be amended to reflect today’s new political reality, as it does not yet include the impact of possible budget cuts, although funds have already been earmarked for the TU Delft | Campus Rotterdam programme for this and next year. In conclusion, the development of Campus Rotterdam is not an everyday task. There is still a lot of exploratory work to be done and decisions will have to be made going forward. Charting the unknown waters of this new development is a daunting yet immensely fulfilling challenge.

Any questions?

If so, do not hesitate to contact the Campus Rotterdam project team by sending an email to campusrotterdam@tudelft.nl.