TU/e has been struggling with capacity constraints in its English-taught bachelor’s programme in Chemical Engineering and Chemistry for years. ‘We get around fifteen additional students in Eindhoven every year. Last year, about 160 students enrolled. That meant we had really reached our physical limit. Students spend a lot of time in the laboratory on this programme, and the labs are all fully booked at some point. It simply no longer fit’, says Leonie Krab-Hüsken, programme director of CSE.
Win-win-win
UT happens to offer a more or less equivalent programme, Chemical Science and Engineering, also taught in English. The difference is that Enschede still has room for more students. ‘We have around sixty students, and we can certainly accommodate eighty. We said to each other that we could give each other a helping hand instead of competing with one another. It is a win-win-win situation: Eindhoven can manage its numbers better, we grow a little, and the student gets a highly regarded degree programme’, says Krab-Hüsken.
Both programmes perform well in various international rankings, with students rating the UT programme as a top programme. Other advantages of studying in Twente are that the programme costs around €2,000 less per year here for non-EU students, rooms are easier to find and cheaper, and there are good career opportunities beyond ASML. ‘It seemed like an obvious solution to us.’
Name recognition
Yet convincing international students of these advantages has proved difficult. Around seventy newly enrolled students were invited to an online presentation explaining all the benefits of switching to UT. ‘Some of these students had already enrolled at both universities to spread their chances. A handful of them ultimately chose Enschede. Of the rest, one deliberately switched.’
Krab believes Eindhoven is simply better known internationally. ‘ASML and Brainport Eindhoven are an important factor in why many international students specifically want to take this programme there. They hope to find a good job afterwards. Sometimes the parents who are funding their studies decide that they have to study there. Or perhaps it has something to do with the proximity of the airport.’
Numerus fixus
Although getting started is always difficult, the collaboration will continue next academic year. ‘We have been working on this since last March. Perhaps we should have started earlier. At least we are now better prepared to get more students to Enschede through this route next year’, she says optimistically.
Meanwhile, Eindhoven University of Technology is working on a numerus fixus arrangement for the programme.
