‘In total the four Dutch universities have 6.000 alumni in Germany, 2.000 of which graduated at the UT,’ says Solange Panayotopoulos. ‘And there is a huge interest in the network of UT alumni working in Germany – on national and regional level. For example, from the city of Enschede or East Netherlands Development Agency. The German based representatives of the Holland Innovation Network have also contacted the alumni office looking to connect with our alumni, because their goal is to find innovation opportunities and connect them with suitable companies and universities.’
‘Thanks to the tour we now have a better idea of where our alumni work. That includes companies such as Porsche, IBM, Otto or the European Space Agency,’ continues Panayotopoulos. ‘We were already able to make connections. For example, one alumnus working for Porsche was interested in the UT’s collaboration with Lithium Werks, so we were able to connect them. The alumni seem to appreciate the initiative, so we now want to create a more active network, stay in touch and possibly organize meetings on yearly basis. This was just the first step of building an alumni community in Germany.’
alumni tour
The ongoing ‘German alumni tour’ was organized by alumni offices of the four Dutch technical universities: University of Twente, Eindhoven University of Technology, TU Delft and Wageningen University & Research. It began on the 19th of November in Cologne and continued to Frankfurt, Stuttgart, München and Hamburg. The tour will finish on the 11th of December in Berlin, in an event hosted at the Dutch embassy. About 200 alumni have participated in the meetings.
