New policy for UT student teams

The University of Twente is developing a new policy for student teams. It will regulate how a team can become (and stay) an official student team, and therefore receive support from the UT.

Photo by: Ooms

‘We haven’t had any official procedure until now if it comes to our student teams,’ says the Director of Marketing & Communication (M&C) Atilla Kerpisci. ‘However, the number of teams seems to be rising. We already have five teams with a sixth one possibly coming up and we want to make sure we can properly support all of them.’ For that reason, the UT has drafted a new policy document, which has already been approved by the Executive Board and will come into effect in the near future.

Criteria

The document states specific criteria that student teams need to meet in order to obtain funding and various support from the university. ‘These criteria include focus on technology that is closely connected to one of the UT’s fields of expertise, formulating their own challenge, having a multidisciplinary team, a proper business plan, insurance and so on,’ lists Kerpisci, adding: ‘And perhaps most importantly, that they want to win, because that opens up many possibilities for them.’

Cooperation

A specially appointed committee will assess whether these requirements are met - and not only in the case of newly formed teams. The policy will also apply to all the existing teams, who will now be officially asked to cooperate with each other. ‘We have noticed that the individual teams work separately, independent of one another, but we would like them to coordinate their activities, learn from each other,’ explains Kerpisci. ‘The committee will evaluate if this takes place. And if it’s found that a team doesn’t comply with the rules, it’s of course possible that the UT will withdraw its support.’

New minor

The M&C Director stresses that the university considers it very important to help local student teams. Which is also why the UT is working on a minor that would allow the team members to get extra credits. ‘We want to develop relevant HTHT (High Tech Human Touch) minors,’ confirms Kerpisci. ‘We believe that working on a student team is a great learning experience and we appreciate the competitive and entrepreneurial side of it. The teams are rather iconic and can motivate young people to study technical disciplines. They are great ambassadors for the UT.’