ROC van Twente is a large vocational college (mbo) with more than 20,000 students and locations in Hengelo and Almelo, among other places. Its many departments work with very different processes, from finance and grants to marketing and communication. The goal: work smarter with AI, without compromising on security, privacy and control over data.
The challenge
In an educational institution like ROC van Twente, many processes are labour-intensive and revolve around information. At the same time, strict requirements apply to privacy, security and the use of data. That makes AI promising, but also complex.
The challenges were concrete:
- many internal processes are time-consuming and fragmented;
- information comes from different dashboards and systems;
- grant applications are complex, with many rules and a lot of documentation;
- written justifications take a lot of time and repetitive work;
- there is serious concern about the security and privacy of student data.
A top-down implementation proved difficult within the organisation. So the question was: how do you introduce AI in a way that works and that people support?
The approach
Together with ROC van Twente, AI-Supportgroup, an Artific partner, chose a bottom-up approach: not starting from policy or structure, but from concrete needs in the departments.
First came extensive consultation with the technical teams and the security officers. That established that the Artific platform meets every requirement for privacy and data security: ROC van Twente keeps full control over its data, and no student data is exchanged. Only then did the first department get started, in a fully shielded environment.
That first department was Finance. There, AI helps with working with financial data and dashboards, and with structuring and writing grant applications, using an AI Grant Assistant designed specifically for ROC van Twente. By starting small and testing and improving step by step, results were visible quickly.
The result
The effect did not stay within one department:
- AI is being used successfully in the finance department;
- security and IT have given full central approval;
- trust in AI is growing within the organisation;
- Marketing & Communication has joined in and uses AI for content, website copy and optimisation;
- other departments are joining on their own initiative.
The finance department became an ambassador. Instead of imposed use, demand now comes from within the organisation itself: departments hear about the success and come forward to ask whether it could work for them too. Because security was central from the start, there is trust, and that trust is what makes scaling up possible.
