The University Council wanted to know what consequences would be for the current staff, in particular the administrative organisation. Rector Tom Veldkamp responded: 'I am taking the lead in this process, because I feel personally involved and responsible for ATLAS. I've already had conversations with the staff. The one with the students will follow. We are thinking about a good solution, but it will take several months to come up with a good plan. We will look for a solution for the small permanent group of employees. If there is one, we will share it with the parties.'
On September 2, the news came out that ATLAS will stop from September 2025. The University Council wanted an answer to how the procedure for that decision went. 'The intended decision to end with ATLAS was already taken before the summer. It just wasn't clear at the time how many new students were enrolling,' says Veldkamp. It is now known that 11 first-year students have applied.
Administrative organisation
There are still many question marks about what part of the existing staff can stay during the period when the number of students decreases, due to graduation. The University Council foresees that at some point the student population at ATLAS will have shrunk to such an extent that maintaining its own administrative organization will not be feasible. For example, can another programme within the ITC faculty (which ATLAS is part of, ed.) take over part of the administrative organisation? Rector Veldkamp could not say much about this and reports that consultations still need to take place.
September 2029
The programme does not cease to exist immediately. The ATLAS students have until September 2029 to complete their studies. The low number of student enrolments and the high costs associated with them have already been a point of criticism. 'Next year, the study will continue as normal. The number of registrations is disappointing, but there is nothing wrong with the quality', Veldkamp said.
