The University of Twente's Twente Education Model (TOM) means challenging themed project education. The education consists of 10-week periods, each with one central theme. As a student you therefore learn to look beyond the boundaries of your own field of study and to establish links with other disciplines.
Students form multidisciplinary teams in order to look at the assignment at hand from several different perspectives. For example, technical solutions also present social, economic and design dilemmas that are part of the social context of the issue.
The University of Twente invests considerably in the added value of the campus as a physical learning environment, for example with the Classroom of the Future and the DesignLab. With smart technical applications, guests can think along and work on the projects without actually being present, or a guest speaker can inspire the students with a short presentation. Online information can easily be disclosed and the technical aids ensure that 3D modelling of prototypes, for example, is possible.
TOM comprises three pillars:
- module- and project-based work
- student-driven learning
- three roles: researcher, designer, organizer
In July 2016 the first group of TOM students graduated: