Courses ATLAS | University College Twente

What does our future ideally look like? How can you create responsible solutions to create a future worth wanting? And how can technology positively influence our society? As a student of University College Twente (UCT), you will aim to find answers to these questions. During the three-year, English-taught Bachelor's in Technology, Liberal Arts and Sciences (ATLAS), you will work on various complex, real-life challenges together with your fellow students. You will develop knowledge and skills in many different fields of study so that you can become the problem-solver of the future.

Not your regular Bachelor’s

This programme is not like any other bachelor’s. It is an Honours Programme for motivated and ambitious students who are eager to challenge themselves with an out-of-the-box study programme. Three things you need to know about the UCT curriculum:

Design your own study programme
You know best what you want to get out of your studies. That is why, as a student, you have a great deal of freedom in composing your bachelor’s programme. Throughout the whole curriculum, you will take charge of your own learning process. For example, by focusing on certain subjects or roles within projects, selecting topics within domain courses, and choosing specific elective courses. Apart from some fixed domain courses, which will give you a solid foundation in the three main domains: natural sciences, social sciences and mathematics, you can decide for yourself which elective courses you want to follow.
You will start each semester by writing your own Personal Development Plan and finish with a Self-Evaluation Report. This report forms the basis for each semester’s assessment. You will tell us what you want to learn and why, as well as how you propose to do it and whether you succeeded in the end. Our teachers are at hand to guide you in identifying your learning needs. This way, you will be able to create your own unique profile as a UCT graduate.
Xenia has gained expertise in design sketching, data science, and data visualisation.
Aliyya has taken courses on smart cities, sustainable business, and environmental policy.
Emily chose bioenergy, climate change, and resource efficiency & waste management.
Tenzing's interests brought him to courses in neuroscience, brain-computer interfacing, and electronic circuits.
Mark put his focus on deep learning, data information, and the internet of things. He combined these technical courses with social science courses such as trust & risk and communication.
Curriculum is centred on projects
The UCT curriculum is based on the premise of challenge-based learning. Each semester in the first two years is built around a central project, in which you and your fellow students will work together to find and develop a solution for a challenge our society is facing today. This way, you will experience what it is like to bridge the gap between knowledge and societal demands and how you can responsibly innovate in the context of today’s (digitalised) society. Within these projects, you and your team will develop your take on a specific problem or challenge and all team members develop their own role. It also means that you decide what you need to learn and how you will get there. The focus at UCT is more about ‘learning’ and not so much on ‘having learnt something’.
Go beyond academics
Within UCT, you have ample opportunity to grow, not just professionally but also personally. That is why, next to the regular curriculum, you will also set out one or more personal projects. We call this the Personal Pursuit and it makes up 10% of your study programme. Within such a project, you get to work on a topic of your personal interest. For example, you might focus on your musical talent and learn how to compose and record a song. Or what about learning how to design a robot, delving into an ancient culture, designing clothes or learning a new language? Wherever your interests lie, the possibilities are nearly endless!

Study Overview

This Bachelor's is a three-year programme, spread over six semesters. Each semester, you and your team members will work on a different project, while also following (elective) courses to gain knowledge and skills. You will pass a semester once you have successfully completed the semester project as well as the (elective) courses within a semester.

Study programme

Year 1
- Health and Mobility
- Sustainable Cities & Communities
Year 2
- The Impact of AI in the Digital Society
- Engineering for a Resilient World
Year 3
- Study Abroad-Exchange & Internship
- Capstone project & Graduation

Study points and binding recommendation

At university, you will come across something called study credits, also known as EC(s). The abbreviation EC is derived from the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS), which was designed for the comparison of courses internationally. One credit equals 28 hours of work; you need to acquire 60 credits each year, which adds up to a total of 180 EC in three years. You will receive credits for every assignment you pass.

Within UCT, each semester consists of 27 EC. In addition, you need to complete the Personal Pursuit, which is worth 6 EC each year. In the first year, you need to get 27 study points to be able to continue to the second year. This binding recommendation means you need to pass both semesters (i.e. all courses and projects within the first year), with the exception of the Personal Pursuit.

First year