The visit by Mitsotakis, who studied at Harvard and Stanford, was clearly more than a formal courtesy call. After having been brought up to date by the Executive Board, the Greek Prime Minister soon set off for TU/e innovation Space, in the company of president of the board Robert-Jan Smits and his entourage. There, director Alfons Breukers gave the Prime Minister a crash course on this special teaching method that TU/e offers its students at this location.

Mitsotakis was presented with a few presentations by student teams on the work floor. Team captain Dirk van Meer of CORE, the startup that wants to recycle batteries in a sustainable manner, immediately seized the opportunity and outlined the possibilities of expanding the team’s activities to the Prime Minister’s home country. Mitsotakis laughingly promised to put Van Meer in touch with the right people. He praised CORE’s business plan, “because these are the startups Greece also needs,” said the Prime Minister.

Then it was the turn of SensUs to talk about their annual competition, for which two hundred students from all over the world had once again travelled to TU/e’s campus last week. Greece’s Prime Minister said he wasn’t surprised to hear that the team from Eindhoven had won the competition. “That goes without saying, obviously.”

Mitsotakis said that he expressly wanted to visit Eindhoven prior to his meeting with Prime Minister Mark Rutte later this afternoon to witness first-hand how the collaboration between the university and the neighboring business community works. “This kind of collaboration is known throughout the world as very successful, and we would also like to apply it in Greece. We would like to make use of the available knowledge at TU/e about this collaboration and we have already made the first contacts.”

Hands-on education

Mitsotakis also said that he was impressed by the hands-on education he saw at TU/e innovation Space. “This, too, is something we need to get started on in Greece, we need to take the students out of the lecture halls and make sure they gain practical experience in places like these.”

Naturally, the visit of their Prime Minister also attracted groups of Greek students, and Mitsotakis took his time to exchange thoughts with them. As they awaited his arrival, four Bachelor’s students from Greece said that they did not consider returning to their home country after graduating. According to them, there aren’t enough interesting international companies for them to work at after completing their studies. Greece also hardly offers any opportunities for starting a business, and funds for getting started aren’t available either. They believe that the Prime Minister’s government ought to tackle these problems first. Only then would they take the trouble to even contemplate returning home.