School:University of Twente
Contents
Campus Overview
The University of Twente is located in Europe in the city Enschede, The Netherlands. Founded in 1961 it now holds an approximate of 11.000 students. Originating as a technical university its motto “High Tech, Human Touch” describes how the university connects cutting edge technologies with society.
The university is located in Twente, the most entrepreneurial region of the Netherlands, with approximately 140 new start-ups 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 favor 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 organizations organize 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.
Here is our story:
Promoting student innovation and entrepreneurship
The University of Twente provides everything a student may desire to pursue innovation and entrepreneurship. Starting with their first steps on campus, the students come into contact with the vibrant activities off and on campus.
- Kick-In: Each year all freshman students kick off their academic career with a week full of activities to discover the university, the associations, the students, and the city.
- Student-associations: At the university, a wide variety of student-driven associations can be found. Study associations facilitate ordering books, excursions to companies, represent students throughout the university, and provide a platform for students of similar studies to meet. You can play the sport you love to play at one of the sport associations, practice your musical and cultural hobbies at one of the culture associations, or join a student association. In total there are over 100 different associations off and on campus that are active in various different ways to make a more complete study life. All associations are run by students and provide the possibility to partake in boards and committees. As such, they provided a great learning experience in organizing events and running organizations.
- Student teams: At the moment there are seven student teams at the university partaking in international competitions. The student teams focus on building vehicles driven by alternative energy sources, robotics, drones, etc.
- Start-up and entrepreneurship events: Such as the three day StartupLaunch weekend, the International Start-up Challenge, the two day Create Tomorrow case studies, the UT challenge, and the EntrepreneurialU are organized each year on the campus of the university.
- DesignLab: Science2design4society, the DesignLab provides a creative ecosystem for connecting science to society. In this space students from all fields of study work together to create all the crazy ideas they have!
- Internationalisation Department: Each year they organize two very interesting events, the CuriousU summer school, and the PreU promoting innovation and entrepreneurship among high school students. This makes students interested in 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 organized by students and is meant to broaden the knowledge areas of students. Many lectures relate to real-world problems that fuel the innovative mindset of UT students.
- The Business Days Twente: Offers a vast variety of activities that give students the chance to come into contact with companies. Amongst workshops and an ambition week, they organise a yearly two day long Career Fair, that allows students to talk to company representatives about their interests, internships and job opportunities.
- TEDx and Studium Generale: Offer discussion and workshop platforms with a high variety of topics for students and other interested parties. Often, expert speakers are involved in the guest lectures.
Encouraging faculty innovation and entrepreneurship
Research at the University of Twente is aimed to have a social and economic impact. With research institutes focused on nanotechnology, ICT, biomedical technology, technical medicine, governance & behavioral sciences, engineering, geo-information sciences, and earth observation the knowledge generation is not just at a high technical level but also impactful 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 entrepreneurship. 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: This is a research group at the UT that focuses on innovation and entrepreneurship. They try to bring I&E closer to the students through an entrepreneurial summer school, EntrepreneurialU, and they provide a minor for all students where they teach about innovation and entrepreneurship.
Actively supporting the university technology transfer function
Currently, there is no technology transfer office at the University of Twente. However, the university works in close cooperation with their partners to share their knowledge and make sure that the knowledge is translated effectively into economic activity. The university has a Business Development Team that supports researchers who are involved in taking research results to market.
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.
- Novel-T: Formerly known as Kennispark, "Kennis" is the Dutch word for knowledge. Novel-T is an incubator and center of mentoring and support for starting businesses. Additionally, the Kennispark is a business and science park located across from the university and is home to new and developing innovative businesses.
- Hardstart: This is an association for entrepreneurial students by entrepreneurial students. Hardstart is about creating real value for all the people involved. It's doing this by offering workplaces, connecting people and giving attention to new ideas by hosting events.
- Incubase: A soon to be opened location where UT students can build their ideas into startups
Engaging with regional and local economic development efforts
The region Twente, independent organizations and the University of Twente have the capabilities to provide start-ups with the necessary economical support. All of the following are readily available for 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.
- University Fund: A fund organised by the University of Twente to fund ideas for events created on the campus.
- Cottonwood Technology Fund: A venture capitalist fund that invests in disruptive ideas in the Twente region.
- Innovation Industries: A venture capitalist fund which is partnered with the University of Twente. They economically fund spin off projects originated from the UT. In 2018 Innovation Industries invested 1 million in IamFluidics.
- Twente Technology Fund: An independent venture capital fund aiming to capitalize on new technological developments. The fund focuses on seed and early stage companies.
- KIVI students Twente: A national organisation with a department in Twente. They organise events targeted for young engineers to inspire, connect and support their future career.
- Study Associations: Along with the aforementioned things, these associations also organise company visits for students within the associations’ field of study and collaborate with the industry through design case studies and projects.
Related links
University Website
Wiki pages
University Of Twente
University of Twente Student Priorities
University Innovation Fellows
Fall 2016
Spring 2017
Fall 2017
Spring 2018
Fall 2018
Fall 2019
Related links
