This morning we started early with a 6:45 am wake up call to get all of our packed luggage downstairs ready to load onto the private transfer to Enschede. After a quick breakfast, we drove the 1 hour from Amsterdam to the University of Twente. The University of Twente, created in 1961, is a public technical university in Enschede, Netherlands. It was established the meet the technical expertise needs of the eastern Netherlands and support the local economy after the decline of the textile industry. UT offers over 50 bachelor’s and master’s programs across engineering technology; behavioral, management and social sciences; and geo-information science and earth observation. It holds over 12,000 students, almost one third of them being international. It is ranked among the top 200 universities globally and its research strengths include nanotechnology, health technology, sustainable energy, and robotics.

After our walking tour of the university, we stopped for a quick lunch and a lecture on the purification of sewage water in Enschede. We then walked off campus to the Kristalbad, which directly translates to crystal bath. The Kristalbad is a multifunctional area between Hengelo and Enschede that acts as a natural water buffer for the environment. It concerns a post-treatment of the treated sewage water from Enschede. The purified water runs from basin to basin purifying and cleaning it further. It also acts as a storage area and retention center so that the city has access to water in the event of a drought or other natural disaster.

To end our day, we had drinks and dinner at the bar in the basement of the engineering building. Here we met, ate, and chatted with engineering students from the University of Twente. The students were very interested to know the differences between their university and ours. It is also important to note that everyone spoke English there no matter where they were from. We talked to international students from all over Europe and even met a few from Asia. All the people that talked to us were friendly and wanted to know what American university was like.