The authors of yesterday’s open letter to the Executive Board – which was also cc’d to the department board of Built Environment – write that both students and teachers at Built Environment fear a decline in the quality of education when Adobe Creative Cloud will no longer be available to them free of charge in three weeks time. “Having to pay a license fee of approximately 130 euros for this software package, which is so very essential to us, is a financial burden on top of the costs incurred for books and materials we need for designing models,” master’s student and member of the department council Dennis Andreoli says. “All in all, that’s well above the 250 euros you need to pay annually on top of the tuition fee. That’s quite a serious amount of money for a student.”

For years, the notebook students have to buy at the start of their studies came with Adobe software installed free of charge, thanks to a package deal between SURF, the umbrella ICT organization for education and research institutions in the Netherlands, and Adobe. However, since the end of 2020, Adobe’s contract only provides named user licensing. Adobe will still be available to TU/e staff members, but TU/e students were no longer able to use Adobe software free of charge as of February 1 of this year. An exception was made for students at Built Environment and Industrial Design: they were still allowed to keep using the software free of charge for six months until August 1.

Paint

Andreoli says that the exceptional position for Built Environment and ID students makes sense, “since Adobe plays an essential role in the education at our departments. A switch to a different, freely available software package after summer recess, such as Paint for example, will bring about many changes to our education. Because certain courses are almost completely constructed around the use of Adobe. It also means that students only have a few weeks to learn how to use a new software package, during summer recess no less. But most importantly, other software packages don’t offer the quality that Adobe offers, and which is the standard in the industries we will end up working in after we graduate.”

The students of the department board of Built Environment would have liked to present the Executive Board with the letter together with the students at Industrial Design. Andreoli: “ID student representatives have unfortunately informed us that they didn’t want to take part at this stage, which is why they didn’t co-sign the letter in the end. But since we consider this to be an urgent matter, we decided to go ahead and send the letter anyway. We do however hope to act as a front with ID in the future with regard to this issue.”

The Executive Board said earlier that the students can work with computers with an Adobe license in the library at MetaForum. Andreoli says that this is “a step in the right direction,” but immediately points out that it won’t be possible for all students to simultaneously take a first-year course such as BAU studio 1 – for which the use of Adobe is highly essential – with so few computers at their disposal.

Means

The board of Built Environment supports the students’ plea, Andreoli says, but – as the open letter states – it already indicated that it doesn’t have the means to pay the license fees of each individual student after August 1. And so, the students must now rely on support from central means. Andreoli doesn’t know at this point how the Executive Board will react, but needless to say, he hopes for a positive response.

Dear Executive Board, Dear Reader,

As the general Adobe Creative Cloud licenses will disappear for all students of the department of the Built Environment, the general population of students and teachers of our department foresee a decline in the quality and affordability of the education programs.  Therefore, we use this letter to address the issues that will arise and will propose the only viable solution. Adobe Creative Cloud should be available to all BE students to ensure the quality and affordability of the education programs.

As of today, the Adobe software package plays an essential role in the education of our department. The products that are required of students to pass their courses almost always involve the use of Adobe Acrobat, Illustrator, Photoshop or InDesign. To let go of the requirement for students to use these specific programs would deteriorate the quality of their work and diminish the value of their education.

Obviously, the market offers some paid and free alternatives to the Creative Cloud package, which have been recommended by the IMS. These alternatives are just as costly as Adobe Creative Cloud, they do not meet the current quality standards, or both. There is also the issue of employability. The industries behind our department solely use Adobe Creative Cloud for their work. If students do not obtain the necessary skills in these programs, their employability will inevitably decline. This will also lead to a decline in applications to our study programs and it will deteriorate the image of our department within the industry.

This leads us to the conclusion that Adobe Creative Cloud really is the only proper option for graphic software within the department of the Built Environment.

We believe that asking students to arrange Adobe Creative Cloud themselves however will put a financial strain on their studies which is not reasonable nor acceptable. Our department is already well-known to have additional education supporting expenses besides books: materials for models and printing costs for posters and reports that exceed normal study expenses. Asking students to pay an additional amount in order to be educated properly and to prepare themselves for their careers is not acceptable. On the other side, our department is unable to carry the financial burden to provide Adobe Creative Cloud to all her students after the central licenses have expired.

So, what is the solution? Currently, software packages that are of use to a majority of students are arranged on a university level. However, the required software differs per department and is based on the nature of these departments. Therefore, we plead for an adapted software policy in which the needs of the different departments are represented. These needs are so different at BE that this change is of enormous importance in order to maintain the quality and affordability of our study programs.

We expect the involved parties to treat our concerns with the utmost seriousness and work with us towards a solution.

Signed,

Departmental Council of the Built Environment

CHEOPS – Study Association of the Built Environment

KOers – Study Association Structural Engineering & Design

SERVICE – Study Association Urban Systems & Real Estate

VIA Urbanism – Study Association for Urban Design & Planning

Mollier – Study Association for Building Physics and Services

of CoUrsE! – Study Association Construction Management and Engineering

AnArchi – Study Association for Architecture