It was standing room only at the official launch of the new 3TU.Centre for Engineering Education on Monday, 22 September. Director Jan van der Veen was delighted by all the positive reactions.
In order to draw the attention of the target group to the new centre and its objectives, a kick-off symposium was organised on Monday, 22 September 2014. The large numbers who attended show how much enthusiasm there is for the initiative. During the morning programme, more than 170 people attended speeches by Hans van Duijn, Chair of 3TU.Education and Rector of TU Eindhoven, and his counterpart at TU Delft, Anka Mulder, Vice-President for Education & Operations. There was also great interest in the morning's keynote speech by Dr Ruth Graham, who has spearheaded educational renewal at the MIT. She urged the universities of technology to be more daring.
At a special innovation market, a variety of innovative and promising educational projects currently underway at the three universities showcased their work to each other and symposium visitors. Later in the afternoon, more than 80 visitors took part in one of the two creative sessions on offer. During the sessions, they became acquainted with various techniques that can be used to reform technological education.
3TU.CEE
The 3TU.CEE is a centre in which the three universities of technology of Eindhoven, Twente and Delft are joining forces and above all combining their knowledge of innovation in engineering education. The Netherlands intends to play a leading role in this area in Europe. Partly as a result of the introduction of the Technology Pact and the Technology Sector Plan, the number of students of technology is increasing, which means the universities of technology offer attractive education for a wide range of students. This, combined with the challenge of further improving pass rates, makes more innovation within engineering education essential. The 3TU.CEE is set to become the place where lecturers and researchers combine and disseminate knowledge about engineering education.
“Numerous large and smaller scale educational innovation projects are currently underway at the Dutch universities of technology”, explains Dr Jan van der Veen, Director of the new centre. “The CEE will collect all this knowledge and practical information in order to ensure that other teaching staff at the three universities of technology can also make use of it.” The centre will also conduct its own research, initially into the possibilities for strengthening the interdisciplinary character of engineering education.