Last April 15, for example, the board announced that they would convert one small course to Dutch, or discontinue it. I imagine a lot of people are on the edge of their seats as to which one that will be, although there are plenty of rumors going around.

There are more cliffhangers at the administrative level. For example, at least at my faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, there is no budget for 2025 yet, and it's almost June. And at the end of that month, the collective labor agreement expires. Another exciting file, especially given the planned budget cuts, but negotiations are underway.

A real cliffhanger for students is the recent ruling by the Council of State. The highest court ruled that sanctions by an examination board are not punitive sanctions, but restorative sanctions. How exactly this will work through in the decisions of examination boards in cases of fraud remains to be seen, but the secret use of AI is becoming riskier.

Sometimes it takes so long for the sequel to be written that the public forgets it is still to come. With all the recent attention on the January cyberattack, I was suddenly reminded of a post by Patrick Groothuis. When the decision was made to organize extra exams for students, the vice-chairman of the Executive Board wrote: 'We realize that this puts an extra demand on our teachers. [...] We are going to see how we can compensate this for teachers, we will come back to this later.' I wonder if and when he will come back to this.

All in all, it promises to be an exciting time. In any case, I can not wait to find out how all these stories will continue. And now let's hope there are no budgetary constraints.

Boudewijn van Dongen is a professor of Process Analytics at TU/e. The views expressed in this column are his own.