UNIVERSITY OF TWENTE
FACULTY OF GEO-INFORMATION SCIENCE AND
EARTH OBSERVATION (ITC)
VISITING ADDRESS
Hengelosestraat 99
7514 AE Enschede
The Netherlands
POSTAL ADDRESS
P.O. box 217
7500 AE, Enschede
The Netherlands
T: +31 (0)53 4874 444
F: +31 (0)53 4874 400
E: [email protected]
I: www.itc.nl and www.utwente.nl/en
WWW.UTWENTE.NL/ITC
ITC 2020:
MORE SPACE FOR
GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT
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UNIVERSITY OF TWENTE:
A FUTURE DEFINED BY
AMBITION, INNOVATION
AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
THE UNIVERSITY OF TWENTE IS ACCELERATING.
AS A UNIVERSITY, WE ARE EMBRACING A BOLD
NEW SET OF AMBITIONS AND RAISING THE BAR
EVEN HIGHER. THE UNIVERSITY OF TWENTE IS THE
LEADING EUROPEAN ENTREPRENEURIAL
UNIVERSITY. WE CONSTANTLY ANTICIPATE FUTURE
DEVELOPMENTS AND RESPOND RAPIDLY AND
EFFECTIVELY TO THE CHANGING WORLD AROUND
US. OUR STAFF ARE EXPERTS IN THEIR FIELD AND
SET THE AGENDA FOR PUBLIC DEBATE. OUR
ONGOING INTERACTION WITH PUBLIC SECTOR,
RESEARCH INSTITUTES AND GOVERNMENT
GENERATES GROUND-BREAKING RESEARCH AND
WORLD-CLASS INNOVATIONS. WE PRODUCE
OUTSTANDING GRADUATES WHO EXCEL BY
COMBINING EXPERTISE FROM A RANGE OF FIELDS
AS THEY DESIGN SOLUTIONS THAT MEET THE
GLOBAL DEMANDS OF THE FUTURE. WITH THE
MERGE OF THE ITC WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF
TWENTE IN 2010 WE CONSIDER THE WHOLE
WORLD AS OUR PLAYING FIELD FOR CAPACITY
DEVELOPMENT IN OUR KNOWLEDGE DOMAINS.
ITC 2020: MORE SPACE FOR GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT
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HIGH TECH HUMAN TOUCH
FOCUS ON GLOBAL GRAND
CHALLENGES WITH
INTERNATIONAL PARTNERS
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The University of Twente (UT) has developed a new Vision 2020: Navigating
with Precision. The aim is to become an international university. New “high
tech human touch” knowledge will be developed with international partners for
and within an international context, focusing on the global grand challenges.
Leading core values will be:
• Societal impact: making a real difference
• Synergy: excellence in combinations
• Entrepreneurship and innovation
• Internationalization: tomorrow’s global citizens.
The way in which the UT embodies and combines these core values is what makes it
unique: focused on society, driven by synergy, entrepreneurial and international in nature.
The faculty ITC, which develops and applies spatial technology (high tech) that generates
international societal impact (human touch), fully supports these new core values. ITC
considers its alumni to be its most important “product”: they are our proud ambassadors
and preferred partners in many projects. ITC will continue to consult and access its alumni
network to achieve its mission and goals.
Given the source of our still significant base funding, we continue to link our activities to
the policy agenda (A World to Gain) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This implies that
ITC’s strategic activities are aimed mainly at the priority countries of the Ministry and the
faculty will continue to be involved in programmes related to focal ministerial activities. We
will continue to strive to become less dependent on the base funding. Our success in
attracting external funding during the last few years will allow us to grow by approximately
10% in staff volume compared with 2014. We will recruit new young staff who adhere to
the UT 2020 core values as well as ITC’s specific mission.
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ITC is the UT’s Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation.
Our mission is to develop capacity, particularly in less developed countries, and
to utilize geospatial solutions to deal with national and global problems.
Our vision is that spatial solutions will play an increasingly important role in
meeting many of mankind’s complex challenges (often wicked problems), such
as climate change, population growth, and related claims for sufficient and
secure food, water, energy, health, land and housing provision.
Therefore, our goal is to enhance our standing as an internationally recognized knowledge
hub in the spatial domain, renowned for its collaborative educational and research
activities, particularly in the global South.
FACULTY ITC
GEO-ICT TECHNOLOGY IS
RAPIDLY CHANGING SOCIETY
EVERYWHERE
Currently, Geo-ICT technology is rapidly changing society everywhere − mobile, sensor and
internet revolutions are touching Africa and Asia equally forcefully. These developments
require adaptive and well-coordinated responses. Following the core values of the UT, ITC’s
strategy is to expand our role as an international knowledge hub for capacity development
in our fields of expertise. Societal impact will be achieved by honing our efforts to have a
real impact in the global South. Synergy will be achieved by further fostering our
international collaborations and by moving to the campus. A new location for the faculty
and its student housing on the university campus will not only enhance the international
character of the UT, but also facilitate collaboration with other faculties within the
supporting environment of the design centre and other available facilities. We will continue
to interact closely with our alumni as preferred partners in our capacity development
activities. Entrepreneurship and innovation will be specifically targeted in our new capacity
development activities and education programmes. Internationalization will be stimulated
even further by offering new programmes that are also open to EU students in order to
achieve a more global student mix. In general, we will facilitate internationalization
activities within our University and participate in the UT Vision 2020 themes “Smart Cities”,
“Health” and “Security”.
OUR CORE VALUES
SOCIETAL IMPACT
SYNERGY
ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION
INTERNATIONALIZATION
ITC 2020: MORE SPACE FOR GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT
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CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT:
ITC AS KNOWLEDGE HUB
For ITC, capacity development implies building capacity in domain-specific
knowledge, skills and attitude at the individual and institutional/societal levels.
ITC therefore aims to achieve both individual and collaborative capacity
building. This development reflects what happens in modern societies with a
strong private sector. Individual capacity development aims will be addressed
through education.
COLLABORATIVE CAPACITY BUILDING
Since its inception in 1950, ITC has developed a broad global network of partners, and it
wants to continue to actively pursue and elaborate our international partnerships within our
knowledge domains. In general, many partnerships have already been established in the
fields of education, research and other capacity
development activities – in fact ITC is an established
brand name when it comes to its mandate for
organizational capacity development. We will first
review and evaluate our past performance and impact,
and then apply the lessons generated to enhance our
present and future impact.
The ambition of ITC is to expand its reputation as a
centre of excellence (knowledge exchange hub) in its
knowledge domain. This requires the faculty to play an
internationally recognized leading and coordinating
role both globally and regionally. Our intention is to
organize this together with other supra-national
regional partners. Our focus will be on achieving
impact in the global South. In addition, ITC will foster
networks of multiple universities and institutes, leading
to South-South collaborations.
To increase our societal impact, we need to be more
visible and active in various international organizations,
such as GEO, UN organizations and the World Bank.
We consider it relevant to align our activities with those
of other main players in our field. Examples include
space agencies in both the Northern world (e.g. ESA,
NASA and groups such as CEOS) and the Southern
world (e.g. SANSA, INPE, GISTDA, ISRO), as well as
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geospatial organizations (e.g. ISPRS, ICA, FIG, ISDE) and relevant universities − although
this field is rather scattered. To ensure greater sustainability of such collaboration networks
and the continuity of activities, we will attempt to establish long-term agreements and
collaborations with major funding agencies (e.g. NUFFIC, DGIS, development banks) and
national governments.
When it comes to more specific local capacity development and research, (public-private
partnership) projects will be developed, preferably within the ministerial priority countries.
ITC’s aim is to contribute to context-specific spatial solutions to the wicked problems
emerging in the global South.
To develop our entrepreneurial core value, we intend to actively engage with the private
sector and take on the role of gateway (broker) organization, matching the interests of the
private sector and societal demands − “from aid to trade”. We consider public/private
partnerships (the so-called Dutch Diamond Approach) as the key to fruitful cooperation
between government, knowledge institutes, non-governmental organizations and the
private sector. Together with national agencies, we will actively explore the possibility of
contributing to local and regional (small and medium) business development.
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RESEARCH
In 2020, ITC will continue to be an internationally recognized leading research
entity in geospatial sciences, with an emphasis on geo-information science and
earth observation. We will maintain our focus on fundamental and problemsolving research, with an eye to those complex global challenges where spatial
information can make a real difference. These complex interacting challenges
often relate to claims for sufficient and secure food, water, energy, health, land
and housing provision that are intensified through climate change and
population dynamics. These different claims often lead to conflicts, disasters
and non-sustainable development.
Each department will develop its own domainspecific strategic plan founded on the vision of
the faculty and the University. They can propose
changes and modifications in the domain (chair)
plan (including tenure track positions).
Departments will increase focus on cuttingedge (fundamental and problem-oriented)
research topics and pursue complementary
collaboration with local, national and
international research groups. In order to tackle
global challenges in the future, ITC’s research
activities will develop more towards future
process-oriented spatial research that allows
multi-stakeholder participation. We continuously
strive for a better research assessment by
improving the quality and relevance of our
research and publishing in high-quality
journals.
All our PhD students are members of
the ITC-Twente Graduate School
(TGS). ITC will encourage the PhD
student body to initiate and organize
student-led activities that enhance the
intellectual and scientific aspects of
student life. Specific PhD courses will be
developed to support the training of our PhD
students. National graduate schools will be used to provide our students with access and
exposure to the Dutch national knowledge infrastructure and courses of this national
graduate school.
Given the Vision 2020 ambitions of the UT, we will conduct a systematic review of the
potential for collaborating with other UT groups on the Vision 2020 focal themes “Smart
Cities”, “Health” and “Security”. Specific emphasis will be placed on groups that can
provide complementary expertise in gamma sciences. ITC will take the lead in developing a
joint research programme with identified relevant and interested research groups. We
expect to work jointly on the identified research themes within the faculty and with
partners.
ITC’s IT and data infrastructure will be brought to the level expected of a leading centre of
remote sensing and GIS. We will develop a data policy that addresses all relevant aspects
of (big and open) data science, with institution-level management of ITC’s data resources.
Our laboratory facilities will be reviewed and updated based on the identified needs of the
departments. ITC aims to provide cutting-edge technology for its research and education,
based on multi-annual laboratory equipment programming.
ITC 2020: MORE SPACE FOR GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT
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EDUCATION
The international education landscape is continuously changing. There is now a
growing demand for a different mix of modalities and teaching approaches. As
in the UT Vision 2020, ITC sees “blended learning” − defined as education that
combines face-to-face classroom methods with computer-mediated activities −
as a suitably flexible answer to these changing demands. With a view to having
an international classroom, ITC seeks a globally balanced student mix in the
current MSc programme. ITC will therefore target not only the priority countries
but also the Americas and Europe for student recruitment, in order to guarantee
the wide cultural diversity of our student population. These student recruitment
activities will lead to more students who will increasingly spend less time at
ITC. We aim to award at least 200 diplomas every year within our current MSc
programme, while with the new initial MSc programme up and running an
additional 50 diplomas a year can be expected by 2020.
Within the UT, education is based on the triple O concept. This stands for research (Dutch:
Onderzoek), design (Dutch: Ontwerp), and entrepreneurial and organizational skills (Dutch:
Ondernemen/Organiseren). ITC will increase the visibility of these three dimensions in its
current curriculum. We will give our MSc students the opportunity to participate in publicprivate partnership projects initiated by ITC and other organizations. It remains our
continuing aim and ambition to maintain and improve all quality aspects of our courses as
evaluated in the (re)accreditation cycle every five years. The following developments will
take place in the coming years.
ITC KNOWLEDGE DOMAIN TO BE ACCESSIBLE TO BOTH EU AND INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS
In order to serve Dutch and EU students too within our knowledge domain and train them
in typical UT engineering approaches for designing future-oriented solutions to the world’s
grand challenges, we will finalise the development of a new initial international MSc
programme together with other faculties. This choice implies the need to align the
academic schedule with the general UT calendar.
SUPPORTING INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT
Lifelong learning is becoming the standard. There is also a shift in demand towards a
recognized MSc degree. However, institutes and companies consider it undesirable to
send their employees away for prolonged periods of time. This triggers a demand for either
part-time and/or distance education or a modular approach that can ultimately lead to a
recognized MSc degree. We intend that this new design will also lower the perceived study
load for our students.
BLENDED LEARNING,
INTERNATIONAL
CLASSROOMS,
LIFELONG LEARNING
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A recent educational trend in Europe is towards more individual demands that are also
embodied in the “lifelong learning” philosophy. To accommodate this trend, ITC will
develop different educational routes with modular building blocks. This approach should
allow more emphasis on the individual level; changing modalities of teaching; a more
direct link with ongoing research projects; and access for the talented students to
excellence tracks within the TGS-ITC graduate programme. This new direction will require
the student administration support unit (BOOZ) to accommodate these new modalities in
its support systems.
ADVANCED COLLABORATION WITH PARTNER INSTITUTES AND CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT
ITC’s JEP partner institutions have clear ambitions to build a strong academic profile, with
a growing demand for MSc and PhD degrees. This development requires ITC to move
towards more higher-level education, including PhD education programmes. The newly
established ITC-TGS can provide a good basis for developing joint MSc-PhD collaborations
(with both our current and new MSc programmes) with our partner institutes. This
development implies that there will be less demand for our lower degree and diploma
programmes. Our partner institutes are already well able to provide this level of education
themselves. We will therefore explore how the future of one-year professional master
education can be secured outside the faculty ITC, in either the Netherlands or the priority
countries.
MORE DIRECT LINKS WITH ONGOING RESEARCH PROJECTS OF ITC AND ITS PARTNERS
Within our domain Geo-information and Earth Observation, technical developments occur
rapidly. For ITC it is important to guarantee close links between the education programme
and our university TGS research programme Space for Global Development. We will offer
all our current JEP partners the opportunity to initiate more research collaboration through
joint PhD research. Furthermore, we want to establish active links between educational
activities and ongoing research and public-private partnership projects within the faculty.
MORE INFORMATION
W: www.utwente.nl/vision2020
E: [email protected]
THE ROAD AHEAD
We will translate our ambitions into annual plans. Every year
we will evaluate our progress and adapt the implementation
strategy in order to achieve our goals for 2020. Given ITC’s
commitment to its mission and the still growing demand for
our expertise, we are confident that we will be able to make
significant progress the coming years to realize both UT’s
and ITC’s ambitions and targets.