History
Management and business studies in Twente since 1964
In 1964 the university was established as ‘Technische Hogeschool Twente’ and offered primarily technical studies. At that time, studies were offered in Dutch only and academic studies consisted of a ‘kandidaats program’ of about 4 years and a ‘doctoraal program’ of about 2 years (varied per study). The study Management & BA (in Dutch: ‘Technische Bedrijfskunde’) was offered only as a ‘doctoraal’ program at that time, which started in the late 1960’s. As of 1982, the study started as a full academic study and at that time there was no separation between a ‘kandidaats’ and ‘doctoraal’ program, it was just one academic master program (conducted in Dutch only).
In 1986 the name of the unversity changed (simultaneously with similar name changes for the universities in Delft, Eindhoven and Wageningen) to Universiteit Twente. Subsequently, the name changed to University of Twente as a result of the academic world becoming more international. In 2002 the bachelor-master structure was introduced in Dutch universities as a result of the Bologna Process aiming to create a level playing field between all universities in Europe (so not just in EU member states). For the study Management Studies (Technische Bedrijfskunde) at UT this resulted in 2002 in the establishment of two English bachelor and master programs: International Business Administration (IBA) and Industrial Engineering & Management (IEM). The former being a totally new program and the latter was in fact a continuation of the ‘old’ study ‘Technische Bedrijfskunde’. Since that time, more and more studies became available to international students, which is why swiftly schools changed to English as the primary language in lectures. Since 2018, English is officially the primary language at the university.
The school of management studies (bedrijfskunde in Dutch) was an independent faculty of the university. Early 2000 the school merged with other schools of humanities at the UT (like Public Administration & Political Science, Philosophy of Science, Health Sciences and Education Design & Research). The new school/faculty was named Behavioural Management and Social Sciences (BMS). This large school includes 4 departments (of education and research) one of which is Department of High-Tech Business and Entrepreneurship(HBE). HBE includes research and education and organizes the current two management programs at bachelor as well as master level.