Marjan Oudeman, President of the Board of University Utrecht, mentions The Hyve as a good example of a growing start-up.
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Interview Marjan Oudeman (in Dutch)
Short English summary:
"A student needs to be able to collaborate with a diversity of different parties"
Insecurity is growing, also on the workfloor. Universities need to prepare students for this, says bridge builder Marjan Oudeman.
The univerisity can't stay in their safe ivory towers. They need to help and encourage the "knowledge economy". Bridges need to be build between Universities and companies. Marjan Oudeman is such a bridge-builder. She has extensive experience in boards of big businesses such as Tata Steel and Akzo Nobel and is now the President of the board of University Utrecht.
One of her tasks is to add value to scientific knowledge. Not only econimic value but also social relevance.
In Utrecht there are several initiatives to try accomplish this. For instance "Studentsinc", which enables students to set up a company during their study. "Utrechtinc" is a comparitive initiative not just for students, but also for alumni and scientific personell.
"The latter has resulted in SnappCar an onlineplatform to share your car, or Solease, that rents out solar panels. But also The Hyve, a company that develops open source software for universities, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies. They have 30 employees now and have outgrown Utrechtinc".
Utrechtinc is now trying to scale up. Added value is not just about "hard earned cash" but also about social relevance. Advising local authorities for instance or the initiative "Dynamics of Youth". In that project researcher conduct multidisceplair research on the development of our youth. The way children learn now a days is so different from before. How do we deal with that regarding legislation in education for instance. This is a very important subject.
