Jelle Ferwerda

Jelle Ferwerda works at the faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) of the University of Twente. He has extensive experience in internationalisation at home as well as international partnerships. He has worked as an academic in multiple countries in the area of spatial sciences for natural resources management. He moved back to the Netherlands to focus on internationalisation processes and to develop international relations for the University of Twente.

During some 15 years, he has helped build the UT international profile through various roles such as internationalisation coordinator for the faculty of Engineering Technology in Twente, and university country coordinator for Saudi Arabia and Brazil. In these roles, he gained extensive experience in student mobility programmes, international partnership modalities and the challenges these mobilities bring in the intercultural domain.

For the last few years, he has helped to build the research structure at ITC with a particular focus on PhD requirements for international candidates and the overall profiling of the faculty. As the newly appointed head of business development for the faculty, he is currently responsible for building a new department with a focus on external visibility and strategic collaboration at ITC.