Get highly creative solutions

How does it work? An organisation presents us their challenge or problem. Student teams (between 3 and 5 students) then go to work. The team first comes to a precise problem definition — their challenge — in dialogue with your organisation. They work on the challenge in close collaboration with members of your organisation for a period of 4 to 15 weeks, depending on the scope of the problem, in search of a realistic solution. The student teams are actively supported by specially trained lecturers and researchers drawn from various academic disciplines at UT and from its international partners. We ask the challenge partner to adopt an active attitude. Students need a lot of background information because the issues on which they work are complex, often on a conceptual level. Collaboration involves regular sparring. We often see students 'swim around' first. After that, they have a lot of questions. And these questions are directed at the challenge partners: how would they solve this? Students and challenge partners acquire all kinds of knowledge, and a firm collaboration between the parties develops.

What you stand to gain

International interdisciplinary student teams deliver new perspectives on the problem, possibly resulting in a solution.
Based on previous experience, such collaboration often leads to highly creative solutions.
You gain access to unique and directly applicable know-how developed during the time of the project.
You become acquainted with the University of Twente in a relatively easy way, and join our network of national and international partner companies and European knowledge institutions with operations all over the world.
Your employees develop important skills and know-how through their close contact with our student teams and UT professionals over the course of the project.
Participation offers the possibility of coming into contact with talented individuals and potential future employees.
It gives your organisation a chance to help educate students and prepare them to make a positive impact on society.

Your investment & our investment

What we ask for:

Supplying us with a complex problem that does not yet have a known solution
Time investment of approx. one hour per week for each group during the course of the project, to supply the necessary information and give feedback on ideas and proposed solutions
Input for the final evaluation
No financial contribution is being requested, because this is the pilot phase

Our offer:

We make one or more groups of students (3-5 students per team) available to work on your problem
We provide support from a University of Twente lecturer and/or researcher
Access to / get to know UT

Challenge-based learning explained

Within ECIU University, challenge-based learning means putting the learner in the centre of their educational process. The learner needs to be in the driver’s seat and they should be able to pick the topic they are genuinely interested in. Check out this video and see why this educational approcah is an answer to nowadays challanges.

How does challenge-based learning (CBL) work in practice? This animation takes you through the three phases of CBL: engage, investigate and act. Check out the video and see what your role is as a student and what is expected from you.