In 2012, the University of Twente became a partner of the EIT Digital Master School, which started in the same year. That year, the first students started with their so-called 'double degree'. More than 7 years later, the UT can congratulate the hundredth graduate. The UT invited Sridhar Bangalore Vanugopal for a special celebration. The graduate himself is honoured: "I’m really thankful for the people from EIT who helped me get my degree in difficult times."
Sridhar Bangalore Venugopal, born in India, joined the EIT programme Cybersecurity in 2017. His first year he started at the University of Trento (Italy). He went to the University of Twente for his second year. “The academic level in Twente is very high compared to Trento and India”, says Bangalore Venugopal.
The high level of academics doesn’t mean he had a hard time, he had a lot of help from fellow students and friends. “Everyone here is very patient. If I made a mistake or had trouble keeping up, then all my groupmates jumped in and helped me, which is very different from the culture in India.” Not only his fellow students helped him, but Bangalore Venugopal also had a lot of help from the EIT Master School staff. When he got sick in the last phase of his master, they helped him to still finish his study and to stay in the Netherlands. He says: “My illness delayed my graduation with three months, but thanks to the delay I am now the hundredth graduate.”
The focus on entrepreneurship of the EIT Digital Master School was one of the reasons for him to join the EIT master of Cybersecurity. “I currently work as a Network Security Engineer for a company in Leiden, but at some point, I want to start a company for my own”, says Bagalore Venugopal. Another reason for going for a double degree was doing a master in two different countries.
Data Science Master
With an intake of forty students per year, the UT is already the largest Dutch partner of the EIT Digital Master School programmes. It is expected that this influx will grow further, as the UT will be participating with a third master's, namely MSc Data Science, as of 1 September.