Reinout van Brakel

Reinout van Brakel (b. 1972) is responsible for facts, figures and infographics. He and his team work to ensure that opinions on university education and research are substantiated by facts. To this end, the team maintains and develops various datasets relating to education, research, staff and finances. Reinout also ensures that this information is made public by creating resources such as fact sheets and infographics.

Data sources and applications will become increasingly diverse in the years ahead. Reinout monitors the new possibilities that open data and big data offer for universities and incorporates these into decision-making and policy.

Reinout consults with universities, ministries and other data suppliers and users on appropriate indicators that supply clear information on the state of university affairs in the Netherlands. Reinout: ‘We believe that we should be able to show the public exactly what universities contribute to society.’
Apart from information provision, Reinout also focuses on developments in the area of governance, laws and regulations on control and supervision, and the various codes of conduct within the sector.

Before joining the Universiteiten van Nederland, Reinout was a policy researcher and consultant at Ecorys and PwC. He studied applied education science at the University of Twente and the Syracuse School of Education. Reinout is a member of the Dutch Association for Institutional Research, which is an association of people who collect and analyse information about higher education.