Eindhoven University of Technology: Attending courses across universities with the press of a button
The Student Mobility Project has the ambition of enabling students to follow courses at multiple institutions, without the usual administrative and organisational obstacles. In this project, the alliance of TU/e, WUR, Utrecht University and UMC Utrecht has worked hard to create a platform where these exchanges can take place. Starting from 22 November, students will be able to attend courses at several universities with the press of a button via the platform EduXchange.nl.
Via the platform, students can browse and register for courses at other institutions and have their credits transferred to their own institution. This is the first step towards making it easier for students to compile their own curriculum over the boundaries of the institutions. For lecturers, EduXchange.nl improves the visibility of the courses for students of the other institutes. Students bring different expertise to the table, and look at courses with a fresh perspective.
At the moment, the platform offers more than 60 courses by the alliance partner institutions TU/e, WUR, UU and UMC Utrecht, and this curriculum will continue to expand over the coming years. The four partners in the alliance are also considering whether it is possible to offer a combination of different courses pertaining to certain subjects via the platform.
ENCOURAGING STUDENTS TO LOOK FURTHER
This project was developed in cooperation with SURF and financed in part by the Acceleration Plan for Education Innovation with IT. Project leader Ulrike Wild: “Making this mobility possible for students requires a different national infrastructure and way of offering education. It isn’t easy to develop this, that is why we are so proud that the platform is live. Together with the four institutions of the alliance and SURF, we achieved a wonderful result. Thanks to this platform, education will become even more dynamic and we really encourage students to look beyond the boundaries of courses and institutions.”
STRATEGIC ALLIANCE
The EduXchange platform will first be used by students of the alliance TU/e, WUR, UU and UMC Utrecht. Later it will be used nationwide. These institutes have been working together under the motto Challenging Future Generations since 2019 in order to contribute to social transitions in the fields of health, food, energy and sustainability. Young researchers, lecturers and students lead the project by collaborating across the borders of the scientific disciplines.
OTHER COLLABORATIONS
The alliance between TU/e, WUR, UU and UMC Utrecht is part of a broad network of partnerships between TU/e and other universities at home and abroad. A number of these also offer opportunities for student exchange.