
spatial engineering, cartography, geo-information science & earth observation.

Here, the university was ranked eleventh in the world rankings. The university performed particularly strongly in the Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure 2021 ranking. Rankings Īccording to the Times Higher Education Ranking, the University of Twente is considered one of the 200 most prestigious universities globally. The Student Union, which is run entirely by students, manages several premises, including the student social centre (De Pakkerij) and study centre (Wallstreet) in Enschede and The Water sports complex on the Twentekanaal. Architects Van Tijen and Van Embden designed the first - and so far only - Dutch campus university along American lines where students and staff live, work and pursue their leisure activities on campus. The 140-hectare estate consists of woodland, meadows and water.

The University of Twente was built on the former country estate of Drienerlo, situated between Hengelo and Enschede. Just as the fact that the municipality of Enschede made the Drienerlo estate available for the first campus University of the Netherlands. Another important consideration was the fact that the local economy needed a boost to compensate for the dwindling textile industry. The Dutch government's decision to locate the country's third technical university in Enschede, the main city of Twente, had much to do with the north-eastern province's rich manufacturing industry (textiles, metal, electrical engineering, chemicals).

The institution was later renamed to Universiteit Twente (University of Twente) in 1986, as the result of the changes in the Dutch Academic Education Act in 1984. After Delft University of Technology and Eindhoven University of Technology, it became the third polytechnic institute in the Netherlands to become a university. The university was founded in 1961 as Technische Hogeschool Twente or (THT).
