With this, the University of Groningen will settle in Drachten. The university, Municipality of Smallingerland, Province of Fryslân and Innovatiecluster Drachten signed an agreement to this effect on Friday, February 15. This happened during the celebration of the 5th anniversary of the high-tech business cluster in Drachten. It was also announced there that the Shared Facility Center of the high-tech companies on the Philipsterrein will be converted into a Hightech shared facility building for technology education and business throughout the Northern Netherlands.
Growing from 5 to 18 high-tech companies spread across the Northern Netherlands within five years is a great achievement, according to chairman Binne Visser, but what matters most to him is what companies and educational institutions do together. ,,Together we achieve wonderful results and can therefore put products and services on the market that are just that little bit better and smarter than those of our competitors.’’ But there is more. Meanwhile, the business cluster is working with all MBO and HBO courses in the North on special fields of study and attractive internships for technical talents. This now includes the unique collaboration with the University of Groningen. ,,By bringing academic students to Drachten for part of the master's track Mechanical Engineering, they will more easily come into contact with our high-tech SME companies. We are happy to facilitate this with our high-tech shared facility building at Philips. In this way the students experience that for an interesting and challenging technical career you can simply stay in the Northern Netherlands.’’
University of the North
The RUG is making strides in the field of STEM. The new master's degree is part of a broad package of technical programs offered by the university. Many students do not know this, according to Chairman of the Board of Governors Prof. Dr. Jouke de Vries, even though the university granted the engineering degree decades ago. ’’We are now changing that, thanks in part to the cooperation with the companies of Innovatiecluster Drachten.''
The Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering falls under the Faculty of Science and Engineering and offers the fields of study Advanced Instrumentation and Smart Factories. That will be expanded in 2020 to include Process Design for Energy Systems, and Materials for Mechanical Engineering. Upon completion of the master's degree, one may use the ir title. Smart Factories students are following their second year of study in the Hightech Innovation Hub in Drachten with lectures and research. ’’We train them there together with the high-tech companies to design intelligent, coherent and customized production processes for the factory of the future,'' said De Vries.
Limitless collaboration
Thanks in part to funding from Province of Fryslân, Innovatiecluster Drachten is making the collaboration for the Mechanical Engineering Smart Factories master track possible. ,,The business cluster shows that cooperation throughout the Northern Netherlands leads to great results. For example, the cooperation between the ICD, Technologies Added in Emmen and 5Groningen in Groningen. Only in this way do we remain attractive for technical talent and certainly also for existing and new companies. After all, we desperately need these in the North, in order to provide permanent employment for our inhabitants.’’
University City
For Smallingerland municipality alderman Robert Bakker, a long-cherished wish is coming true. The municipality has been making efforts for years to entice training programs to locate in the municipality. And with success. ,,This way we offer not only our own residents but the entire region a range of MBO courses. With the arrival of the technical master's track of the University of Groningen, we are a little bit of a university town. And we are Tige Grutsk with that.’’