• The University , Education , Student

Increase in number of first-year students at TU/e despite corona crisis

The number of first-year students at TU/e has increased from 2,115 last academic year to 2,280 this year. That increase can be attributed solely to international Bachelor’s students. Their number has increased from 350 to 527. This can be concluded from the so-called 1 October census, which was released on Friday 16 October. The number of Dutch students remained roughly the same. At Computer Science & Engineering, Architecture, Urbanism & Building Sciences, and Industrial Design - programs to which an enrollment quota applied - the ceiling on intake numbers was not reached.

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The number of first year students who enrolled in the Bachelor’s program Computer Science & Engineering - for which the limit on influx was raised from 275 to 325 first-year students in December last year - was 267 this academic year, far less than program director Erik de Vink feared for in January. The ceiling on intake numbers at Industrial Design, which was set at 180 first-year students, was not reached either.

More than half of all first-year students who started at ID this year, 138 in total, are women; 57 percent to be exact. Women are still a minority by the slightest margin, 49 percent, at Architecture, Urbanism & Building Sciences. With 230 first-year students, this program, too, remained well below its ceiling on intake numbers, which was set at 325.

ID welcomed only a small number of new students from abroad. Five students come from the European Economic Area (EEA), six from outside the EEA; nine less than last year. International students make up a larger population of the student body at Architecture, Urbanism & Building Sciences: 46 EEA students and 16 non-EEA students, a twofold increase compared to last year’s numbers. The distribution of Dutch and international students at Computer Science & Engineering is moving towards fifty-fifty: 130 Dutch students enrolled this year, and 128 international students. Last year, that distribution was 158 to 77.

Strongest growth

The Bachelor’s programs that showed the strongest growth this academic year are Mechanical Engineering (from 241 first-year students last year to 384 this year) and Biomedical Engineering (from 184 last year to 248 this year). During the University Council this afternoon, attempts to curb the influx next academic year at Mechanical Engineer will be discussed, since the significant growth has led to a capacity problem at that department this year.

The figures mentioned in the article above have been taken from information provided by the Business Intelligence Portal (employees need to ask for access to this portal via the site of BI).

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