Dezeen Wire: Gijs Bakker, head of the masters school at Design Academy Eindhoven, is leaving after 25 years, the school has announced. His departure this week coincided with graduation week for masters students and was followed by the resignation of the  heads of all three masters courses.

"For 25 years Gijs Bakker has been commited to our academy," the school wrote in a statement. "First as Head of Living (bachelors), followed by a position as Head of a master research programma to finally become Head of the Master Department. We are very proud of the work he has done at our academy and wish him all the best!

The day after the school announced the departure of Bakker, it confirmed that Jan Boelen, Joost Grootens and Louise Schouwenberg, who respectively headed the Social Design, Information Design and Contextual Design masters courses, had stepped down, apparently following a row over the direction of the school. More info in our previous story.

Bakker, who was born in 1942, co-founded influential Dutch design brand Droog Design in 1993 with Renny Ramakers. He resigned in 1999 2009 in a dispute over the company's direction.

Related: Li Edelkoort to resign as chair of Design Academy Eindhoven (June 2008) | See all our stories about Design Academy Eindhoven |

Update 8 July 2012: Design Academy Eindhoven has provided us with the following information:

"Gijs is 70 years old now and told the Executive Board earlier this year that he wanted to say farewell to the academy. He felt it had been a great period and that is was just time to say goodbye.

"Following this event our Executive Board thought about his succession. During this process our three master heads (who resigned last Thursday) told the Executive Board that they wanted to take over his position. This has been talked over with Gijs and he felt it was a good way to continue his master heritage. Hence, the Executive Board put this into effect.

"Gijs has worked for us 25 years. He has developed in-depth master programmes and celebrated a respectful farewell last Thursday."