HomeNewsCuriousU 2018: ambitious about building an innovative international summer school

CuriousU 2018: ambitious about building an innovative international summer school

More participants, more courses, and more nationalities – that is, in a nutshell, the ambition for the fourth edition of CuriousU, which will be held from 12 to 21 August this year. The project team, led by Rianne Kaptijn (S&B), is satisfied to see that achieving this ambition is successful.

Increasing the reach 

Around 300 participants will take part in this year's festival-style summer school. “We do see that we succeed in reaching more people with fewer resources,” says project team member Floris Metzner (Marketing & Communication). “This is because we are gradually making a name for ourselves among potential participants: many of them are from the network of students who have participated before. What we would like to see happen is that we also reach an even larger group of students through our partner universities, because I think there is enormous potential there.”

The number of participants is in line with last year, even though this year the price for participation has risen. However, the participants will get a more extensive programme in return. This year’s new courses include Blockchain Tech and Robot Interaction Design Experience – courses respond closely to new developments. The new courses are popular, but Smart Cities, Health and Happiness, and EntrepreneurialU are also doing well. 

Verificatin of certificates

It goes without saying that innovation is also included in an event such as CuriousU. Metzner: “This year, we have developed an application that can be used to verify the certificates. This means that with the help of a code on the certificate it will soon be possible to check the University of Twente website to see if the certificate has actually been issued and if it was issued to the person in question. This means that falsification of certificates is a thing of the past.” 

CuriousU participants receive a certificate for the various master classes, on which – in addition to their personal details – the content of the course and the study load are also indicated in ECTS credits. “This is a great first step and allows parties who have been provided with a participant’s certificate to check if the certificate has actually been issued by us and that its content is correct. Perhaps this could become an option for many more certificates UT issues.”