University Innovation Fellows
The University Innovation Fellows program is a global initiative founded by Stanford University. It encourages students to shape the future of education. Back in 2016, the UT was the first European university to join the program. Each year, a group of UT students is selected to participate and to come up with plans on how to improve the university.
‘The event is a great opportunity for people all over the world to connect with each other,’ says UT student and one of the fellows Rick Akkerman. ‘Each year we organize a European meetup for all fellows to come together. Connecting and sharing experiences is something that we really love and stimulate as fellows. Now due to the Covid-19 crisis, physical meetups are not possible, and so we took this opportunity to organize an online event. It’s a nice chance for UT students to engage with students abroad.’
‘Twente-4 Hours Global’ will last 24 hours and consist of workshops hosted by fellows at universities across the globe. ‘The stream will last the whole day, but we of course don’t expect people to be online the entire time. Participants can join whenever they like. The workshops will last 24 or 48 minutes. They should be very quick, inspiring and interactive. The topics vary, but mainly focus on making real impact and innovation in higher education,’ clarifies Akkerman. ‘After a set of two workshops there will be a break which you can use for anything from an inspiring speech, a challenge or time to interact in small groups of participants.’
The event will include a couple of companies and roughly twenty universities, such as Southern Illinois University Carbondale and Abu Dhabi University. About one hundred participants have signed up so far, but the organizers hope to increase this number to three hundred. ‘It is open to everyone. We welcome anyone interested in innovation and entrepreneurship and collaborating to make a real impact,’ says Akkerman.
You can find more information and register here.
