TU Delft: €2M for gifted science undergraduates programme

TU Delft will receive €1,950,000 from the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science to fund Challent, a new teaching programme for gifted undergraduate science students. The subsidy is part of the ministry’s Sirius programme, which aims to promote excellence in higher education. As such, Challent forms a key part of TU Delft’s international ambitions, and the university expects the initiative will make it more attractive to top students and researchers from around the world.

Between 5 and 7 per cent of the students following undergraduate courses at TU Delft will take part in Challent once the scheme is fully operational, and students themselves played a large part in the development of the programme. They said like to work with fellow students and with top scientists in way that transcends the boundaries of individual degree courses. They also liked the idea of the programme’s international component and the links if offers with the world of business. At the same time some students were attracted by the scope for immersing themselves more deeply in research

The Challent programme consists of one part linked to a student’s own degree course, and a general part that aims to develop academic skills and personality, to inculcate in students a wider vision of their studies and to develop their leadership and entrepreneurship capacities.

Building up a community of gifted students and mentors is an important objective of the programme as a whole. The gifted students from the various courses are brought together to perform multidisciplinary research in collaboration with public and private partners, carrying out tasks selected from TU Delft’s Sustainable Development platform, or projects the students set up themselves.

In this way, they will not only gain valuable experience, but also build up a network of top students, researchers and useful contacts from the business world. Additionally, they are offered a programme of study that allows them to gain in-depth knowledge and insights on such matters as the role of technology in society.

The precise content of Challent can vary for the students from different degree courses, and is also closely tailored to the students’ needs and preferences. Challent supplements the normal programme of studies. This means that participants will often have to work on them in the evening and at weekends. According to the students involved in the development of Challent, that is not a problem since those invited to participate were selected on the basis of the excellent progress they have made in their studies and their motivation – in other words, they are predisposed to be hard workers.

A pilot programme is currently under way involving students who are taking Mechanical Engineering and Maritime Engineering courses. Challent will be expanded to include the other degree programmes at TU Delft in the course of the coming years.