Personnel faction for science

We founded this new personnel faction because we are convinced that the university needs at least two personnel factions that are in healthy competition for the best people and ideas.

Our theses are:

• Executive decisions and policies are effective when the people are involved in their making.
• Trust in the security of a job at the university must be restored (i.a. no outsourcing).
• We need a flexible performance evaluation system that supports creativity and diversity of qualities.
• We must prepare for a 'tsunami' caused by distance learning. Research-driven education offers a hedge.
• Scientists need more time for their role of scientific parents.
• Facilitate staff in place and time independent work.
• Employees need a place for open discussion with colleagues. Therefore we need to create more team spaces.
• We need to facilitate small research areas and ensure that small faculties can participate in the universities policy and decision making process.
• Not the returns, but academic education should be the Unique Selling Point of our university.
• The student-staff ratio must improve so that scientists regain time for doing research and research grant applications, and for supervising PhD students.
• Copyright remains with the researcher. However, Open Access publishing will get an irreversible stimulus.

For explanations, see:

• http://www.cs.rug.nl/~petkov/council/index-en.html
• http://www.rug.nl/staff/m.h.paapst/projects