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Apeldoorn agrees closer ties with Bantul, Indonesia

Wittenborg University was among a few select Dutch institutes and companies invited by the Indonesian embassy to meet with a delegation from its country in Apeldoorn this week with a view of strengthening business and social-economic relations. Wittenborg director, Maggie Feng, represented the university at the meeting which took place at the Kristal Centre in Zuidbroek, Apeldoorn. Companies and institutes were given the chance to present their services and products during the event while at the same time learning about the business climate and opportunities in Indonesia.

Wittenborg is proud to attract a number of Indonesian students each year for both its Bachelor degree programmes as well as its three Master of Science programmes.

One of its Indonesian students, Rebecca Wambrauw, recently completed a sought-after internship at MTV in Amsterdam with great aplomb as part of her final-phase studies at Wittenborg.

At this week’s event a letter of intent was also signed between the Indonesian Regent of Bantul and the representative of Apeldoorn’s committee for international partnerships, Mr Simon Boon, on behalf of the Mayor of Apeldoorn, which took place after the business presentations and discussions. The former said the reason for the delegation’s visit was to present the economic potential of the Bantul Regency in various areas - including trade and investment, industry and tourism, agriculture, fisheries and energy. She said almost 14% of the population in the region is unemployed and the government wishes to stimulate growth. She said the Netherland is important as it is Indonesia’s third biggest export destination after the US and Germany.

In presenting Wittenborg, director Maggie Feng spoke about the university’s ambition “to become the first private university in the Netherlands that offers a broad curriculum and brings together the private and public sector in key economic areas through degree programmes that focus on the management of people, products and processes”.

“(We) wish to promote three key elements: diversity, internationalism and long term (sustainable) management.”

Within the next 10 years Wittenborg is looking to establish itself as a broad international university with five schools catering to between 400 - 500 students. These schools will be:

• School of Business
• School of Hospitality Management
• School of Arts and Technology
• School of Health & Social Care
• School of Education

Feng also highlighted the fact that in 2015 Wittenborg offers 6 scholarships of €7000 each to Indonesian students who wish to follow one of its master degree programmes and 2 scholarships of €5000 each for Indonesian bachelor students.

WUP 24/9/2014