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The education concept of a University of Applied Sciences

Universities of Applied Sciences offer Bachelor and Master degree programmes that reflect a direct link to the professional field and have a firm element of job-oriented development in their curriculum.

Wittenborg University’s education concept is based on the principle that a student should be highly employable after graduation, or indeed able to employ themselves – especially through understanding the basic principles of operation and management within the industry field that they have studied for. The education concept is also geared to enabling graduates to be employable both at home and abroad.

For instance, Wittenborg’s Dutch students should be able to find suitable employment or start their own companies in the Netherlands, but also have the entrepreneurial spirit to do so abroad.

On the other hand, international students who have studied in Holland, should be able to find employment in international companies in the Netherlands or anywhere around the world, or start their own company here for instance.

International students must  also be enabled to return home and work in their own economies, driving these further.

Graduate employability – at home and abroad -, in a diverse and  international setting, where English is the key language,  is therefore an important focus of Wittenborg University’s programmes and its teachers.

Wittenborg’s education combines a practical look at the relevant industry with an academic grounding in the concepts of business, management, economics and sociology, and students can expect to carry out practical projects, instigated by companies and organisations, and complete a period of work placement, whilst also learning the theories that should be applied. Wittenborg students can also expect to write academic papers and carry out applicable research, both at Bachelor and Master level.

The speed of Study: Wittenborg offers study opportunities to students from nay backgrounds, and believes that the pace of study and the study load must be managed by its students and its education requires maturity, drive independence and hard-work.

Innovating the Internship

Completing an Internship is sometimes overlooked as a minor step on the path towards graduation.  Finding a truly meaningful work placement, however, can prove more difficult than many students anticipate.  While searching for the right business is often the most challenging aspect of choosing an internship, what happens when the type of business you’re searching for doesn’t exist?  Well if you possess the entrepreneurial spirit of Wittenborg final phase student Dante Baker, then you create it.  

Entrepreneurship is a less-explored option to the internship required of all final phase students, but one that can be both challenging and rewarding.  Months of planning and design, trial and error and learning from mistakes have culminated with the recent launch of Dante’s own website, djante.com, an online store offering genuine, hand-crafted, Italian leather handbags, belts and accessories for men and women.  With a product line carefully selected by Dante himself based on rarity and sophistication, Dante hopes to capitalise on the scarcity of retailers for these types of accessories in the Benelux and German markets.  Yet within days of launching, djante.com has already attracted customers from beyond its initial target regions.

Shoppers browsing djante.com encounter a website designed with the elegance of its products in mind.  User-friendly, easy to navigate and complete with an interactive customer support applet for pre- and post-sales service, djante.com is testament to the dedication, determination and patience of its creator.  Citing late nights and pressure from self-imposed deadlines, Dante revealed that his first project in entrepreneurship has been a learning experience.  Learning how to use the software necessary to create the website was probably the biggest challenge says Dante who admits that “there were times when I felt like I could have given up.”  Motivated by future entrepreneurial ambitions, however, Dante now recognises these challenges as part of his own development.

Fred de Graaf, President of the Dutch Senate, a hit with International Students at Wittenborg University!

WUP 12/6/2012 - Final Year student Noma Mabandla (Zimbabwe) reviews last week’s seminar given by Wittenborg’s Honorary Professor (Lector) Mr Fred de Graaf, President of the Dutch Senate (Voorzitter Eerste Kamer). 

Seminar Review: Fred de Graf

On the 5^th of June Wednesday afternoon, Wittenborg students received a special seminar from the President of the Dutch senate and Honorary Wittenborg Professor, Fred de Graf. Mr. de Graf’s seminar was on the history of the Kingdom of the Netherlands from the 16^th century to the present day. 

The focal point of the seminar was the power struggle through the years to the present day system of governance. He explained that in the 16^th century, the Netherlands (Including Belgium) was part of King Charles V of Spain’s empire.  Under the leadership of Willem van Oranje, the Netherlands revolted from the King’s rule and became a republic in 1581. Having declared independence, the Dutch provinces formed a confederation and each had a representative that sat in The Hague’s States General (Presently the House of Representatives and the Senate).

Mr de Graaf discussed the current issues facing the Netherlands and Europe at large such as the banking crisis, high unemployment(particularly for young people) and the way Europe has dealt and will dealt with these issues. This section of the discussion generated many questions from Wittenborg's students. There were also questions raised regarding the relations of China and the EU and a future free trade agreement, which Mr de Graaf said was a possibility within a year. Also of concern, was the austerity measures taken by the EU to reduce debts and its effects on the economy. Mr. de Graaf was gracious in answering the students’ questions, on what are essential very current discussions within his government.

Overall it was a very interesting afternoon, especially for the none Dutch students who got to learn of the history of the country and also a brief addressing of the current issues facing Europe and by extension the students themselves.

Project Weeks at Wittenborg University

Every block; - 6 times a year Bachelor students are involved in project weeks that challenge them through real life, real time projects, organized by the University in cooperation with various companies and organisations, both locally, nationally and sometimes internationally. Students are divided into project groups and each group is given an assignment that has to be completed in a short period of time, usually a week. This means dealing with deadlines and pressure while working for a real client.  At the end of the project week they have to present their findings in a professional setting at Wittenborg University: an opportunity for them to hone their consulting and presenting skills. 

In short:  a stimulating and educational experience that prepares students for the reality of their future careers.

Want to become a partner?

For companies and organisations, the project week is an excellent opportunity to tap into the knowledge and creativity of our international student population and our University is always looking for new partners with whom it can organise a fulfilling project!

 - So if your company can offer a real life case that you would like to see solved, Wittenborg students can help you. These projects can be in a wide range of areas, such as business plans, marketing cases, customer research, branding, logistics management, sales and business to business.   As a cooperating company you are asked to dedicate some time to the introduction of the project, a company visit and, if possible, attend the presentations. Some organisations like to award the best team with a small prize, however this is not always done!

Wittenborg University’s Project Week planning for the 2013-2014 academic year is as follows:

• 16 -20 September
• 04 – 08 November
• 16 – 20 December
• 02 – 07 March
• 14 – 18 April
• 02 – 06 June

If you consider participating or would like to have more information, please contact Karin Pelle at karin@wittenborg.

Wittenborg University: Dr Teun Wolters talks about his new book Sustainable Value Creation

Various economic theories deal with the question of how economic value can be created by the production of goods and services that are useful and valuable to people. With value creation comes the question as to how the producers can capture that created value as income, rather than letting others disproportionately benefit. If that is not possible, value creation cannot be sustained. Therefore, in business we see that value creation and value capture in one way or the other (depending on the business case) go hand in hand.

However, the concept of sustainability points to a different situation where private economic value is appropriated without taking the social costs of production and consumption fully into account. That implies that economic value that companies create may go together with serious disvalue for others (in terms of health hazards, poverty traps and ecological damage). As such unsustainable value creation is still taking place at a large scale despite worldwide policies to reverse this gloomy perspective, more than ever before it is time to promote corporate sustainability and value creation that is all-inclusive, fair and future proof.

This requires real entrepreneurship focused on technical and social innovations which stop the plundering of the earth and stop the use of the earth of as a sink for polluting substances.

Fortunately, there are manifold technological opportunities which entrepreneurs can developed into really sustainable solutions for essential problems.

What will unchain the entrepreneurship that will take sustainable value creation seriously? In general, there are three motivating factors which are of importance here:

1. Motivation based on own and corporate values and a sense of responsibility
2. External pressure (by governments and civic society) which underlines the priority that sustainable value creation should be given
3. Economic opportunities which can be transformed into promising business

These three factors belong together although it is understood that not all business people start moving for the same reasons.