focused on COVID-19 related issues. We are always looking for opportunities to enhance our partnerships with industry, for example by Industrial Doctorate programs. To anticipate on educational needs of professionals in the field of safety and digitalization, we further developed the cooperation with the municipality of Apeldoorn and several other parties. On the international level, our ECIU-network is of increasing importance since we started creating a European university. Finally, we work closely with our four International Strategic Partners and selected countries on specific research and education domains.
SHAPING INDIVIDUALS Shaping individuals is about putting people first and contributing to a digital, fair, and sustainable society. People first SHAPING means providing a safe and INDIVIDUALS inspiring work and study environment for our staff and students and empowering individuals and organizations in society. To offer prospective students the possibility to get acquainted, we organized a DriveUThrough, safari-style campus tour and digital open days. The influx of students increased, probably due to COVID-19; a gap year was not a tempting perspective. Besides a top-notch education, we stimulate students to develop themselves in a broader sense through student activism. This really sets the University of Twente aside from other Dutch universities. The base of our organization consists of professionals who add value, who are intrinsically motivated and move flexibly with the continuously changing environment. As a small university in the periphery of The Netherlands, it is a challenge to attract talented staff. One of the measures we took is the dual career program, supporting partners of newly appointed UT-staff to find a job in or outside the academia. To realize the target figure of 25% of female professors in 2025, we started a new Hypatia campaign. Overall, the number of employees increased by almost 300, mainly appointed on the Sector plans. Once at the UT, we invest in sustainable employability through health and wellbeing programs and talent development. Our ambition is to become known as the university where all individuals and teams will blossom. Focus in academia is mostly more on research than education. We recognized extraordinary
educational talent by rewarding the first educational professorship to Justine Blanford. An essential precondition for a safe and inspiring environment is integrity. To start and facilitate discussion about scientific integrity, we organized the performance Mindlab. Over 560 employees visited the theatre performances and shared and discussed their experiences afterwards.
FINANCE The university concluded 2020 with a consolidated surplus of M €2.0. Related to the budget, the surplus is mainly the result of more income from subsidies and valorisation and lower personnel and other costs. The positive result of 2020 has been added to the reserves, and will be used for investments in education, research and talent development in the coming years, in line with our strategy Shaping2030 and the Sector plans on Education and Research.
COVID The COVID-19 pandemic shook up 2020. One thing became vividly clear: our employees and students are resilient. In only one week, the whole curriculum was online. New collaborations were started to find solutions for the medical challenges by the COVID-19 virus. And we discovered new opportunities in online work and education. The TNW faculty, for example, distributed ‘lab kits’ to students to continue their studies at home. Because students were called upon their creativity, they became more confident in their research skills and the designs were even better than those in the original setup. UT scientists from science, engineering and social sciences contributed to solutions for health care and new insights in spreading of COVID-19 virus. In addition, Novel-T offered specific COVID-19 support to regional companies and industry. In March, a solid crisis organization was organized to deal with all the questions the pandemic confronted us. The Corona Crisis Team (CCT) oversaw the overall perspective and steered multiple subgroups in order to be able to act fast. The last year showed that true to our new Shaping2030 strategy, the UT can and will have an impact on society, even under challenging circumstances.
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