TU/e notebook program - Technische Universiteit Eindhoven

need less space for housing is that almost any place is useful, as long as the needed
facilities like the wireless network are available. This means that students can work,
alone or in groups, in the university restaurant, in lecture rooms, or anywhere they
choose without the university providing them with special places.
The above mentioned cost reductions are benefits for the university itself.
In the academic year 2007-2008 the student had to pay € 900,00. The rest of the costs of the
notebook and al the above mentioned services are subsidized by the university in the form of
an obligation contract the student signs. After three years of study at Eindhoven University of
Technology the obligation is finished.
The university converts the obligation into a gift, and the student acquires the ownership of
the notebook. Although the contract only lasts for three years, the students that make use of
the notebook program receive hardware support for five years and software support for six
and a half years. This extended service means that the university’s contribution is higher than
that of the student.
The costs for the students can be paid in once, but students can also make use of a loan of
which the university pays the interest.
The main reasons that students make use of the notebook program are the high technical
specifications of the notebook, and the services provided. And although sometimes a mere
notebook can be bought for less, 95% of all first-year students to make use of the notebook
program.
Another cost advantage of the use of notebooks in the education program emerged while
talking to some of the researchers and teachers. Two of them, and several IT coordinators,
mentioned a change in the use of sophisticated experimental systems in different laboratories.
In the past there were just a few of those systems available for students, but due to the
introduction of the notebooks researchers developed peripheral equipment to use with the
notebook. This means that the during the practices in the laboratories students could use the
power and screen of the notebook in stead of the expensive, and therefore few available, stand
alone equipment.
None of the interviewees could give an indication of the cost reduction that development
caused, but they did say that the use of the notebook in this way was seen by both teachers
and students as a big improvement due to the notebook program.
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