Prospective students had until the end of Monday January 15th to register for the four TU/e study programs subject to a cap on student numbers in the academic year 2018-2019. Now, since all the caps have been exceeded, who is and is not admitted to these four programs will be decided by a decentralized admission test.

Industrial Design in particular will have to disappoint many prospective students: the limit here is 150 first-years and the registration counter now stands at 290. According to Marcel Visschers, staff member of Education & Student Affairs (ESA), a number of registrations are still being processed, checked for whether the foreign pre-education fulfills the requirements. This is the case for all four programs. We may see the number of registrations rise a little further.

ID Dean Aarnout Brombacher told Cursor in early November that the strong reduction in intake is necessary to create scope to set up a coherent research program. Back then, Brombacher was in favor of a limit of 120 first-years, but in discussion with the Executive Board it was decided to raise this to 150.

Less extreme

Visschers says the gap between the cap and number of registrations is less extreme for the other three programs. At Biomedical Engineering the limit is set at 225 first-years and 244 registrations have been received. At Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences there are only 250 places available to 271 applicants, and at Software Science they are dealing with 288 applicants and can accommodate only 250 first-years.

Software Science has received many applicants with a foreign pre-education: 51 in total. At Biomedical Engineering the figure is just one. Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences have received nine, and Industrial Design twelve.

Practice run

In the coming period the four programs will be applying the decentralized admission test; how they administer it is up to them to decide. Last year provided a practice run. Applicants who are eventually admitted must be informed in good time. On April 15, the prospective students who took part in the selection test will learn their ranking via Studielink. If this number falls within the program's capacity, they will be offered a place. They must state their acceptance within two weeks via Studielink, otherwise their offer will lapse.