Avans University of Applied Sciences will start a minor 'Factory of the Future' at Brainport Industries Campus (BIC) in September.
Avans University of Applied Sciences will start a minor ‘Factory of the Future’ at Brainport Industries Campus (BIC) in September. After Summacollege and Fontys, Avans is the third educational institution to move to BIC. 30 Fourth-year students from the Technical Business Administration, Elecrotechnics, and Mechanical Engineering programs can take part in the minor. From 2021, other Avans courses will also join. The goal is to grow in 2 years to a group of 100 Avans students who will be working on the ‘Factory of the Future’.
It’s not about moving the existing education from Den Bosch to Eindhoven, but about “a new type of education”, says Martin Rodenburg of Avans. “We can kill three birds with one stone with this: we provide co-creation between students and business, we make the educational offer more flexible and we bring different disciplines together. A great added value for both education and all companies active at BIC”.
Rodenburg expects that the move to BIC will also be an important impulse for educational innovation at Avans. “For the students, this means an improvement in their knowledge building and personal development. Moreover, we are bringing in our entire network; it is not for nothing that our advisory board was so enthusiastic about this step”.
For Brainport Industries Campus, cooperation between business and education is one of the spearheads. With Summacollege and Fontys University of Applied Sciences the necessary experience has already been gained, says Ferdinand Gremmen, director SDK Vastgoed (Volkerwessels), and responsible for BIC. “We offer talents a place to further develop themselves in a situation where they are in direct contact with the companies at BIC. That is a position with added value for everyone. That’s why we wanted to give education such an important role in setting up BIC. The practice already shows that the concept works; with the arrival of Avans this will become even stronger”.
The development of this new type of education at external locations is in line with Avans’ ambition for 2025. Avans focuses on co-creation with the professional field and practice-based research, more freedom of choice for students, and interdisciplinary collaboration with students from different study programs, and the Sustainable Development Goals as a perspective for action.