SUMMARY In 2021, the University of Twente (UT) celebrated its 60th anniversary. Thanks to the total commitment of our staff, we were able to maintain our excellent education. We achieved outstanding results in our research fields in the second year, in which COVID-19 left a strong mark on our institution. Our institutional strategy, Shaping2030, drives us to prepare for the society of the future whilst cherishing the core values that we adopted at our foundation in 1961, a University that has elevated its societal impact in its lifetime. Our ambition is to contribute to developing a fair, sustainable, and digital society. Despite the constantly changing conditions for work and studying in 2021, we kept working on achieving our ambitions. In the constant battle with workloads, the Executive Board set priorities for 2021: ECIU University, the VU-UT and Apeldoorn hubs, personal development, lifelong learning, strengthening the master programmes, and digital transformation. This annual report also includes some of the dilemmas that we have faced: admissibility to our programmes, the element of growth, and the issue of threats from individuals that some of our academics are facing after contributing to the public debate.
SHAPING SOCIETY Shaping society requires a multi-disciplinary approach to empower people and thus create a true impact. One of the means with the most significant impact is the availability of high-quality academic education. In 2021, we continued to provide small-scale education at a high level, training our students to become leaders of change who think out of the box and understand the interaction between science, technology, and society. Our new masterās vision aims to increase the number of masterās students and strengthen our position as a research University. Focusing on master programmes will reinforce the synergy between education and research and contribute to enhancing those programmes on the one hand and delivering the highly qualified academic and technical talents that the labour market is asking for on the other hand. As of 2019, we are building a European University with thirteen partner
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universities. Through this ECIU University, as it is called, we can experiment and ultimately implement new innovative concepts of research and education, such as Lifelong Learning, Challenge-based Learning, and microcredentials. In 2021, at least 19 out of our 33 master programmes included a Challenge-based Learning component. Our research is driven by academic curiosity. The resulting fundamental knowledge and techniques are used for the benefit of addressing societal challenges. We embrace Open Science, which is reflected in an increase of 279 published datasets in 2020 to 361 in 2021. Our research is also aimed at being translated into applied technologies and knowledge. Citizen science reinforces the challenge-based character of our research. Collaboration between researchers and citizens opens the academic process and improves the application of knowledge and technology in society. We also pay attention to the entrepreneurial component in our educational programmes and beyond. By our outward-looking perspective, we support the possibility of connecting our education and research to external needs.
SHAPING CONNECTIONS Shaping connections is about networks. One of the most cherished networks is our alumni community. Together with our students, current employees and former employees, our alumni form a community of more than 70.000 people who connect us to the innovative companies, governments, and knowledge institutions across the globe. As a campus University, we are a valuable link between academia and society in the region, the Netherlands, and the world. UT scientists and more than 350 companies are active in the Artificial Intelligence hub in East Netherlands. These connections create an appealing business climate for new companies, bind researchers and digital talent to the region, and offer opportunities for acquiring funds. One of UTās spearheads is its cooperation with Amsterdamās Vrije Universiteit (VU). This co-operation aims to train more technical talent with a strong social drive. In addition to joint bachelorās and masterās programmes, we are working on joint appointments for academics. We endeavour to connect and strengthen our ecosystems in the north of the Randstad and the east of the Netherlands. Various dossiers have been on the table in our collaboration within UNL, the
