Indulge your Inner Techie at University College Twente

Hit up young, innovative, and alternative University College Twente for its ATLAS program. Diving into this math and science-heavy liberal arts program on an American-style campus won’t offer a typical European university experience, but for a tiny band of happy students, that’s the point.

Basics

Associated with: University of Twente

Degrees: BSc

Concentrations: Technology and Liberal Arts & Sciences

Location: Enschede, Twente

English: Yes, the entire program

Cost for out-of-European Economic Area (EEA): €12,918

On-campus housing cost: €455-500 (furnished)

FAFSA funds: No

Abroad from abroad: Yes, an “away and aware” semester is built into a student’s 5^th semester, which requires non-UCT coursework.

Student body: Admission is not capped per se, but 59 rooms in the ATLAS building accommodate all first-year students. This is the smallest established university college, with 132 students. It is also the only university college with more men than women, roughly 55% male/45% female, whereas the other schools range between 30% and 40% male.

Five adjectives: innovative, unorthodox, technological, unrestricted, community-based 

University College Twente Ranking

The Times ranked University Twente between 251-300th globally. In the QS Rankings, it’s #212 . That’s not too shabby. It underscores the high academic standards of Dutch universities generally, even newer institutions like the University of Twente.

Founded in 1961, Twente’s already making waves as one of the most impactful universities. Its entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to problem-solving gives it a reputation beyond Dutch borders for students looking to take tech to the world’s social problems.

Is it Hard to Get into University College Twente?

University College Twente doesn’t publish its total applications, but the acceptance rate of its parent university hovers around 50%. This selective honors college is likely lower, arguable around the 25% typical of other university colleges.

University colleges with residency requirements, like UCT, often limit admissions to the number of students they can house. The university emphasizes that they’re after “curious’ and “self-reliant” students who understand the educational model of the university college and are enthusiastic about it. They base admissions on a holistic, albeit selective, process.

Is University College Twente a Good University?

Yes! It’s a standout in entrepreneurial and technically-focused colleges in the Netherlands.

“In the first few years the liberal arts and sciences program actually wasn’t marketed as a university college, but pretty soon this was changed as it was a more well-known term that fit with the educational concept.”

UCT’s program emphasizes that in the future, we’ll need a “new kind of engineer” who understands the social context of their work, and who can learn new skills easily. Technology is always changing, and universities can’t teach it to students and let them walk out the door. Instead, Twente’s program acknowledges its daunting task: it has to teach students to create and understand the technology that doesn’t exist yet, then use it to solve the world’s most pressing problems.

City Life Near University College Twente

First, a geography lesson:

Twente is the region.

Enschede is the city of 160,000 and 200 high-tech companies that hosts its premiere technical university.

As such, Enschede is known for its technical college but not its vibrant city scene.

For a city of 160,000 people, there is precious little information about hanging out in Enschede. After poring over hundreds of YouTubes and hitting up students who stepped out in Enschede pre-Covid, we generally felt like we were trying to squeeze information from a stone (i.e., it was not happening).

Let’s just say it’s not a cultural hotspot.

One international student says, “after living in the big city, it’s like moving to a farm” and emphasized that their favorite student activities were “parties, weed, sports, and sitting in parks.”

Holla.

Luckily, that’s not the entire story.

What to Do in Enschede

The downtown pedestrian area is extensive, car-free, and buzzing, with students shopping at Primark and strolling through squares with fountains and carnival rides. The farmer’s market opens two days a week with the opportunity to score cheap produce. Old Market Square hosts multiple festivals throughout the year, and students can check out live music on many weekends.

Yet, as a long-isolated corner of the Netherlands, the region is known more for its occupational contributions than its culture.

The University of Twente has dubbed the area a “good work-life region” for business-building and its attractiveness for employees looking to relocate their families here.

Start-up competitions are common, which offers some fun and support for entrepreneurially-minded students.

And, of course, there are some student staples that lots of people talked about. There are multiple movie theaters, a video arcade, and a bowling alley. There’s even a tradition in these parts of road bowling, called klootschieten, where you might try to heave a metal ball as far as possible. The sport stems from the Frisian habit of chucking leaden balls at enemy ships.

Give it a go.

Life on the UCT Campus

University College Twente is contained on the campus of its parent university, which is extensive. On campus, you’ll find shops like a limited grocery store and bike repair shop, along with a hair salon, bookstore, Subway, and Starbucks right on campus.

The large, residential campus of the University of Twente was always part of the design: when the Netherlands was searching for a site for its third technical university, Enschede committed the estate that is now the University of Twente, and in the early 1960s, university planning began with the idea that students would live and study on the vast site.

ATLAS students (the Bachelor’s in Technology and Liberal Arts and Sciences honors program, also called LAS) are an autonomous unit within that system.

That means Twente is not a separate university college like many others, and its faculty are not exclusive to the liberal arts program.

“The structure of UC Twente’s semesters, with the Personal Development Plan + Self Evaluation Reports as the basis of your semester evaluation, the semester projects, and the lack of grading/focus on feedback instead, made it quite special, I think, and different from some of the other UCs!”

Living at UC Twente in Student Accommodation

First-year students must live in the newly renovated Drienerburght building, which includes classrooms and private rooms with private bathrooms but shared living/kitchen facilities.

The Drienerburght Building was recently gutted and revamped with an eye to including varied classrooms to support ATLAS’s programs.

There are cozy wood-paneled walls, a kitchen for lunch prep, wide open communal areas for events and lectures, and a mix of classrooms, to accommodate small student groups working together on projects or in small, problem-based learning sessions.

The university college sits smack in the middle of campus, near fields and trails and next to the sports and recreation complex, cementing the idea that you need not venture very far in order to complete a degree at ATLAS.

“The most surprising thing to me was the weather. It’s terrible! It’s always raining.”

However, second-year students can choose to go off campus (or stay and have ATLAS help facilitate their housing search). Many second and third-year students leave Drienerburght but continue living with other ATLAS students.

“You can choose out of almost every course at UT and really form your own curriculum.”

Student Activities on Campus

ATLANTIS is a student study association that hosts educational and social activities.

Possibilities for niche pursuits are also huge at Twente, where the greater university offers plenty of clubs. Twente associations include 20 cultural associations, teams like rowing and solar cars, as well as 60 student sports associations.

The university itself is sizable (over 11,000 students) and highly international, with multiple international student groups to explore.

The ATLAS program offers an insulated student experience alongside the facilities and perks of the bigger university community. However, meeting locals can be hard, and international students here spoke about their difficulties blending in. As is common in the Netherlands, they say Dutch students typically hang out with other Dutchies.

Getting Technie with Academics at University College Twente

ATLAS University College (Technology, Liberal Arts and Sciences) is a selective program that emphasizes technology and engineering in the context of solving global challenges in the social sciences.

Atlas combines mathematics, engineering, and social sciences in all they do, so students should be prepared to spend time diving deep into math in ways the other liberal arts colleges may not require.

“The freedom has been really positive.”

There is just one major here. Technology is the star at Twente, and the program is called “new engineering” by the college, which believes that multiple fields help ground technology in real-life projects that can improve the world.

That does not mean all students are focused on technology; some are happy to take a parallel track. For instance, the college has extensive ties to entrepreneurialism, and budding startup founders may find they are happy to be around technology without becoming engineers and coders themselves. Others study the social sciences but focus on solving social problems in a technologically adept future, like focusing on the technology of climate change and its human implications, for example.

“Although technology is integral to the program, because there is such a large focus on combining engineering with social subjects, the type of people is more multidisciplinary (and there are also graduates who ended up going into social sciences). Compared to my master’s now, where most of my classmates come from a computer sciencce background, I can absolutely feel a large difference. But that’s the beauty of a university college, I think. It’s such a different crowd then in most other programs!”

Twente’s pedagogy combines project learning with problem-based learning and emphasizes that it seeks to create future problem solvers. Consequently, teamwork and project-based learning are part of each semester, and semesters are organized by theme. For instance, first-year students have studied “humans & movement” and “sustainable systems” as semester themes that inform projects within classes.

“I was quite convinced that I wanted to do civil engineering. Then I started to become more interested in the natural sciences. I went searching for some broader studies and finally found UCT.”

Taking Classes at UCT

What does that look like?

First-semester students have no room to choose courses, and take classes like calculus and linear algebra, behavioral science and technology, Newtonian mechanics, fluid and heat, and finally, work with 4-13 students from their year on the collaborative project.

In their second semester, electives are offered as students begin to differentiate their goals from their classmates. Second-year students specialize in their areas, pursuing far more electives around their interests. Group work is part of the curriculum at UCT, and multiple assignments throughout the semester, not just the project, involve students working together. Third-year students can go abroad for a semester for more electives, and then pursue a capstone research project.

“Lots of students go to amazing universities for their master’s.”

Like all the university colleges, advisors, called tutors, help students choose classes and prepare for future academic applications or careers.

Unique Aspects of University College Twente Academics

However, at Twente, students have a personal development plan for themselves, and students make their own plans each semester, including how they will learn and demonstrate they have met their learning goals. They provide self-evaluation reports for themselves at the end of the semester, and mentors assess students on whether these reports gel with their observations of students throughout the semester.

“So instead of grades, we look at learning process and personal development. You need to get a pass with honours in general (which is like an 8 in ‘normal’ grades). At the beginning of the semester we get a set of goals which we have to achieve and we then have to set up our own plan of how we want to achieve that goal and with which courses.”

They aim to help struggling students reach their goals to pass the semester and focus on offering feedback rather than grades.

Applying

Apply through the Netherlands’ national application portal, Studielink, by uploading a motivation letter, transcripts, and test scores.

Top candidates may be invited to interview.

Both students and teachers can use the interview to ask questions, and the admissions committee meets afterward to decide whether to offer a student a place in the upcoming class. High grades in math and one of the sciences (physics is preferred) are expected alongside an IB diploma.

There is a math improvement package online that can help students with deficiencies catch up before the start of the term. Unique to Twente, there is a CV requirement, so schools will have access to your extracurriculars, volunteerism, and awards.

For non-EU students, applications are due May 1 for the fall semester, and the college encourages students to apply earlier. The process is remarkably short, including the interview process, taking just a couple of weeks.

The university college does not offer direct financial support for incoming students, but through the Dutch government, a Holland Scholarship is available to outstanding non-EU Twente students who demonstrate financial need. It covers €5,000 toward a student’s first-year expenses.

Weigh your Options

Look at the different specialties and residency requirements side by side so you can choose between university colleges best. Or check out related programs like Erasmus University College or University College Tilburg.