Dear colleagues,
Welcome to an inviting and inspiring New Year!
Just before Christmas, we looked back at a fruitful 2016 with once again a record number of new national and international students to our Bachelor and Master programmes. We hope that they will be as successful as their predecessors. With two fantastic Bachelor Graduation Days and a Cum Laude award ceremony, a significant period for many of our students has come to an end. And to stay with the festivities: we celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Econometrics Institute and the 100th anniversary of ESB. We were proud to host the honorary doctorate of prof. John Hauser at this year’s EUR’s Dies Natalis.
We’re pleased to say that Erasmus School of Economics is internationally highly ranked. And, that regarding education, housing, support and welcome in Rotterdam, international students at Erasmus University Rotterdam are above average satisfied (International Student Barometer).
Erasmus School of Economics had the privilege to be EUR’s first School to launch a MOOC, a dazzling success from the start. We intensified the collaboration with iBMG and the Faculty of Philosophy.
We are proud of those of our faculty and support staff who have received an award.
Both faculty and support staff have achieved a lot the past year. In 2016, we continued giving a follow up to the recommendations of the Research Review Economics and Business (IPRC) and early December we completed the Programme Assessment as well and we are expecting the results early 2017. The selected total engineer for the renovation of the Tinbergen Building is working hard to ensure a good working environment in the future. In the meantime, 2017 will be our last year in the ‘old’ building and we need to prepare for our temporary offices in the E and N building.
We realise that the joyous growth of our student numbers and our ambitions to provide high-quality research and education, also mean a lot of work. Our successes do not come easily and each of you face daily challenges. Our successes were, and are not possible without your commitment. You Make It happen! We’re very thankful for that and are looking forward to another year full of teamwork, good spirits and achievements. Â
We wish you all a very happy New Year!
Philip Hans Franses and Ivo Arnold