School:University of Twente

Campus Overview

The University of Twente is a university located in Europe in the city Enschede, of the Netherlands. Founded in 1961 it now holds an approximate of 10.000 students. Originating as a technical university its motto “High Tech, Human Touch” describes how the university connects cutting edge technologies with society.

Being the only university in the country having a campus, the university is located in Netherland’s hottest start-up region Twente, with approximately 140 new startups in the region every year. With a Science and Business park across the road and lots of I&E resources the University of Twente has a lot to offer to those willing to create a business.

In the past couple of years the University of Twente already went through some educational changes in favour of innovation and entrepreneurship. Its new Twents Education Model (T.E.M.) revolves around a multidisciplinary, project-based approach. One of the big strengths of the university is its student driven activism, where student driven organisations organise and arrange all sorts of things for their fellow students.

The University of Twente is part of the University Innovations Fellows program since Fall 2016. It is the first university in the Netherlands and Europe participating in the program.

"High Tech Human Touch Twente" on the Map: https://youtu.be/ldMEI7CvrQU

Promoting student innovation and entrepreneurship

The University of Twente provides everything a student may desire to pursue innovation and entrepreneurship. Starting with their first step on campus the students come into contact with the vibrant activities off and on campus.

• Kick-In: Each year all freshman students kick off there academic career with a week full of activities to discover the university, the students and the city. 

• Student-associations: Ordering books, excursions to companies, even the sport you love to play is organized and managed by fellow students. Over 100 different associations on and of campus are active in various different ways to make a more complete study life.

• Startup and entrepreneurship events: such as the three day StartupLaunch weekend, the International Startup Challenge and the EntrepreneurialU organized each year at on the campus of the university.

• DesignLab: sience2design4society, the DesignLab provides a creative ecosystem for connecting the science to society. In this space students from all fields of study work together to create all the crazy idea they have!

• Internationalisation Department: Each year they organise two very interesting events, the CuriuousU summer school and the PreU promoting innovation and entrepeneurship among high school students. This makes studnets looking at joining the UT aware of the highly innovation driven mindset of the current students.

• Week of Inspiration: As a yearly event, the week of inspiration is organised by student and meant to broaden the knowledge areas of students. Many lectures relate to real world problems that fuel the innovative mindset of the UT students.

Encouraging faculty innovation and entrepreneurship 

Research at the University of Twente is aimed to have a social and economic impact. With research instututes focussed on nanotechnology, ICT, biomedical technology, technical medicine, governance & behavioural sciences, engineering, geo-information sciences and earth observation the knowledge generation is not just at a high technical level but also impactfull for society. All summarized in its motto:

• High Tech-Human Touch: Connecting the research involving cutting edge high tech on campus with the (current) problems of society.

The UT has many research departments that represent faculty making strides in the area of innovation and entrepeneurship. Details about research at the UT:

• 1,500 researchers work on a daily base on relevant societal challenges in a variety of disciplines
• deliver over 2,700 publications a year, providing valuable input for scientific excellence and laying the foundations for new knowledge-based spin-offs
• NIKOS: Research group at the UT that focuses on innovation and entrepeneurship. The try to bring this to the students through a entrepenurial summer school, EntrepeneurialU, and provide a minor for all students where they teach about innovation and entrepeneurship.

Actively supporting the university technology transfer function 

Comming Soon: There is currenty no technology transfer office at the University of Twente.

Facilitating university-industry collaboration

Located in the heart of the Dutch start-up scheme the University of Twente is surrounded by organizations providing the knowledge and experience for beginning businesses to evolve.

• Kennispark: "Kennis" is the Dutch word for knowledge, the Kennispark is a business and science park located across from the university and is home to new and developing innovative businesses. It being an incubator it is also a center of mentoring and support for starting businesses.

Engaging with regional and local economic development efforts 

The region Twente but also independent organizations are able to provide startups with the necessary economical support. All of these are readily available for students, a few of them are even specifically aimed at entrepreneurial students.

• Dutch Student Investment Fund: An organization run by students in the European Union  that helps to turn ideas into reality. The DSIF provides help with your idea, prototyping, financing and finding customers
• Young Technology Awards: An event run by the Twente region to place start-ups in the national spotlight.
• Fund the future: A funding event run by Kennispark and Powered by Twente organisations

Related links

University Website

University of Twente

Wiki pages

University of Twente

University of Twente Student Priorities

University Innovation Fellows

Fall 2016

Marjanne Luinstra

David Goedicke

Jos van 't Hof

Arian Hohmann

Spring 2017

Elisabeth de Vijlder

Lennart van de Velde

Mélanie Droogleever Fortuyn

Sarah Roediger

Fall 2017

Sevim Aktas

Rianne Hagen

Titus Venverloo

Wim Kamerman