All in the family

Some families have several generations who all study at TU Delft. In this series, parents and grandparents discuss their student days with their children and grandchildren. Read the full version here.

Grandson Hans (Computer Science Engineering), his father Joost (Applied Chemistry) and grandfather Bert Dekker (Applied Physics) were all known to miss the odd lecture. But they still did reasonably well in exams. Despite this, conditions were not always ideal. Father Joost recalls an oral exam with a professor who had a room in the ‘Yellow Chemistry’ basement. “He smoked cigars all day long – just entering the room made your eyes water.” According to grandfather Bert, it was quite normal in those days for professors to offer students a cigarette to put them at their ease. How different things are now: we now have a no-smoking campus.

Lots of other things have changed over the years. The biggest difference? Digitisation. “I can ask questions whenever I like. Some lecturers even have a kind of consultation hour”, says Hans. That's something new for his grandfather. “In my day, professors were ‘gentlemen of a certain standing’.” He dared not even speak to them. “Professor Kramers was an exception. The atmosphere in his department was special. Everyone would meet there for coffee at a set time. You could sit with these clever people and solve all the world’s problems. Those discussions gave me food for thought well into the evening. It was just amazing.”