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Proud Moment as Wittenborg Ranked a Top HBO Institute in Holland 

Wittenborg has been ranked as one of the top Universities of Applied Sciences (HBO) in the Netherlands by Keuzegids HBO 2018 – an annual report comparing the quality of HBO’s in the country.   

Wittenborg earned the 4th highest score of all HBO’s in the country and the highest in the Amsterdam region as well as the Randstad with 83.5 points out of 100. Wittenborg has locations in Apeldoorn, Amsterdam and Vienna. It just celebrated its 30th anniversary.

Only 14% of HBO’s has this year been given the stamp of top institution from Keuzegids with Wittenborg being one of them. According to a press release there are lots of quality to be found at private business schools, hotel schools and in art education.

Wittenborg Bachelor's of International Business Administration is "excellent quality"

The Keuzegids report, which came out on Tuesday, singles out Wittenborg’s International Business Administration programme (s) - IBA- in the section International Business & Management Studies. “You are guaranteed excellent quality,” Keuzegids enthuses. For this area of study Wittenborg’s IBA in Apeldoorn and Amsterdam is ranked second, only topped by the Tio University of Applied Sciences for its IBM programme.

Keuzegids comments that private institutions, like Wittenborg and Tio, are naturally not as cheap (for Dutch students) as the state-funded ones but is worth the trouble. “Students are glowingly enthusiastic about the teaching quality. The programmes are challenging, students learn useful skills and are well prepared for the professional world. They are also taught by enthusiastic teachers.” In comparison, Wittenborg is actually cheaper for non-Dutch students than many of its state run competitors.

The list categorizes institutions by size – large, medium-sized and small. Wittenborg also occupies the 4th spot on the list for small institutions – meaning, those with less than 700 first-year students. In fact, one of the distinguishing features of this year’s list is that smaller institutions outshines the bigger ones by a mile.”

Small HBO's outshines the big ones

The list categorizes institutions by size – large, medium-sized and small. Wittenborg also occupies the 4th spot on the list for small institutions – meaning, those with less than 700 first-year students. In fact, one of the distinguishing features of this year’s list is that smaller institutions outshines the bigger ones by a mile.”

“There are some brilliant small institutions ones on the list,” comments Keuzegids, which acts as guide to prospective students on where to study and which programme to follow. The ranking is based on the some of the opinions of current students collected in the National Student Survey (NSE) earlier this year, as well as accreditation reports, institutional year reports and market employment data.

Several media outlets reported on the ranking, including the Leidsch Dagblad that featured a graphic clearly showing Wittenborg as the highest scoring University of Applied Sciences / HBO in the Randstad (The region around Amsterdam). It is disparaging about the poor performance of the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences and InHolland University of Applied Sciences. At Amsterdam “mass education and average education” are seen as problems, according to the paper.

This year Keuzegids has awarded 176 top degree programmes at Dutch universities of applied sciences in the Netherlands, with Wittenborg's IBA  being one of them. That represents 14% of all HBO programmes in the country. It advises students to demand "more than basic quality".

WUP 27/9/2017

by Anesca Smith

©WUAS Press