Student mobility (EN)

Each university has an individual style when it comes to teaching and learning. It is important to realize that teaching might be different from your home university before deciding to come to the University of Twente. In Twente we have a teaching style using research-based projects called problem based learning. Our teaching style is best suited for self-motivated students that are independent and eager to learn. If you need a supervisor to motivate you to learn, the UT is not your university.

Teaching Style

The University of Twente has adopted a problem-based learning approach for all bachelor programmes. Courses are offered as quartile-long blocks on a specific theme, where students receive training in the form of lectures, tutorials and labwork combined with group-assignments. The latter run for the duration of the quartile.

When looking at course schedules it may seem that only a few hours of classes are set for courses each week. This is to allow for group work to be performed. In general it is expected that students spent 40-45 hours per week on their studies in order to successfully pass their exams.

Academic Year

The academic year at the University of Twente consists of 2 semesters. The first semester runs from the first week in September until the end of January. The second semester runs from early February until the first week of July. (These periods are inclusive of the main examination periods). Each semester contains 2 quartiles, each with their own exam period. Courses are therefore part of a semester (1 or 2) and a quartile within that semester (A or B). So when you look at the course schedules, the denominations 1A, 1B, 2A and 2B refer to the semester/quartile in which the course is offered.

You can download the complete academic calendar, as well as overviews of the holidays here.

Course schedules can be found here. Please note that the course schedules are placed online only a few weeks before the semester starts. (We recommend using last years’ course schedules as an example, if course schedules for the next semester are not available yet)