Faculty of Science

In 2020 the departments of Computer Science, Information Science and the Environmental Sciences joined forces and formed the Faculty of Science. The faculty embodies the Open University’s ambition to play a distinct role in the research field of the Sciences and explore New Horizons in this domain.

With almost 100 members the Faculty is relatively small by national and international standards, but it has a long-standing research tradition - going back to the foundation of the OU in 1985. The academic courses and programmes of the faculty are continuously being revised and updated and stand in the tradition of the OU-education: activating online education. The high quality of the resulting courses and programmes leads to the excellent results in the Dutch yearly quality reviews of academic programs, such as the National Students Enquête (NSE).

Education and research

The faculty of Science provides education en research in three disciplines:

Environmental Sciences
Computer Science
Information Science

The faculty also contributes to the OU's multidisciplinary research programme Innovating for Resilience and more specifically to the research lines Learning and Innovation in Resilient Systems and Safety in Urban Environments.

Organisation of the Faculty of Science

Dean: mw. prof. dr. ir. Petra de Weerd-Nederhof

Within the faculty there are three departments:

Environmental Sciences
Head of department: dhr. prof. dr. ir. Jetse Stoorvogel
Computer Science
Head of department: dr. Bastiaan Heeren
Information Science
Head of department: dr. ir. Roger Bons

Go to the overview of the staff of the Faculty of Science.