Elective Courses and External Learning Activities

At the department of Industrial Design, electives form the connection between the knowledge and skill base developed in the core and generic engineering courses and practice, projects and professional domain. They offer a controlled context to develop your overall competence of design. In addition to the electives offered by the department, electives may also be taken at other TU/e departments. Select the electives that best match your learning goals and contribute most to your intended development, as derived from your professional identity and vision as described in your Personal Development Plan. The PI&V coach can provide support in the decision-making process. Choosing electives should support expanding the overall competence of design. 

In your second and third year, you will need to complete 50 ECTS in your elective space. The Curriculum Overview  on the Forms and Files page  provides an overview of all bachelor electives offered by Industrial Design, arranged per Area of Expertise. Here, and on the PlanApp, you can find out when and how you can best schedule your electives. PlanApp is also used to submit the final choices you make in your personal curriculum. More information here. 
Osiris and the Osiris course catalogue provide all information relevant to each specific elective, just type in the course code: timeslots, teachers, quartiles the elective is taught etcetera. 

For important deadlines regarding elective planning (registration dates), please check the Year Planning  on the Forms and Files page. We advise you to register for your electives quickly as most electives have limited seating. 

Prior to each academic year in April, the new elective planning is made available through Osiris. 

The elective space requires a minimal of 15 ECTS of level 2 and 15 ECTS of level 3.

The external learning activity (B31 option) of 25 ECTS is part of your elective space. The options for this include an internship, an exchange, a minor at another Dutch university or electives within TU/e. The internship, exchange and minor at another Dutch university are considered level 3 activities.

Courses outside ID

There are possibilities to include activities or courses that are outside of ID as part of your elective space, however there are some restrictions set by the Examination Committee of Industrial Design.

• Maximum of 15 ECTS outside ID in electives will be approved, but you will need to discuss your choices with your PI&V coach.
• Up to 25 ECTS might be approved by the Examination Committee. However you will need to submit a request for approval to the Examination Committee ID using content based argumentation for your choices. More information can be found here.
• In case you would like to include 30 ECTS or more as part of your Bachelor diploma, this is not possible. You can do additional courses on top of your program. It is advised to discuss your plans with your academic advisor.

Please note that an exchange and a minor at another university (both 25 ECTS) are considered to be 'outside of ID' activities as they are not assessed within the department. This means that you cannot do additional courses outside ID as part of your program in case you also want to include one of these B31 External learning options. Take this into account when planning your elective space. The Examination Committee has pre-approced the exchange at our partners by default. More information about minors can be found here

As part of the elective space, you can also look into the Thematic Learning Areas, which mostly include courses outside of ID. Also the Educational minor offered by Eindhoven School of Education can be chosen as part of the elective space. More information about these possibilities can be found here.

Please note: currently there is one elective from another department that cannot be chosen based on overlapping content. 

In case of questions or concerns, it is always advised to contact your academic advisor.

If you have registered for more electives than you can attend, please cancel your registration in Osiris. There is only a limited number of seats available per elective. If the registration deadline has passed, please send an e-mail to the Center for Student Administration (CSA ID) and they will cancel your registration for you. 

When the maximum number of seats in registrations has been reached for a course, you can no longer register yourself for that course in Osiris. In case you would still like the possibility of participating in the course in case a spot opens up, you can email CSA ID and ask to be put on the waiting list for that specific course. When a spot opens up, the first person on the waiting list will be registered for the course.

When less than 16 students have registered for an elective at the close of the registration period (5 working days before Q1 and 15 working days before Q2, 3 and 4), the elective might be cancelled. The students involved will be contacted by the educational office so they can register for another course.