TU/e has been struggling with capacity constraints in its English-taught bachelor’s program in Chemical Engineering and Chemistry for years. “TU/e gets around fifteen additional students in Eindhoven every year. Last year, about 160 students enrolled. That meant they had really reached its physical limit.”

“Students spend a lot of time in the laboratory on this program, and the labs are all fully booked at some point. It simply no longer fit”, says Leonie Krab-Hüsken, programme director of a similar program at University Twente (UT).

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 program”, says Krab.

Both programs perform well in various international rankings, with students rating the UT program as a top program. Other advantages of studying in Twente are that the program costs around 2,000 euros less per year 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 the advantages of Twente 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 program 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, TU/e is working on a numerus fixus arrangement for the program.

This article was previously published on UToday, the University of Twente’s independent news outlet.