Internationalisation

Wittenborg CEO Maggie Feng was invited this month to join an online event marking 75 years of the United Nations (UN). The event highlighted 75 years of peace and freedom as well as the sustainable development goals of the UN's 2030 Agenda. Fellow speakers included the mayor of Apeldoorn, Ton Heerts, and other dignitaries, including Director International Organizations & Human Rights of Ministry of Foreign Affairs Gerard Steeghs and Climate Envoy for the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Marcel Beukeboom.

In 2019, Wittenborg University of Applied Sciences was represented by over 100 different nationalities. Wittenborg’s three pillars of ‘Internationalisation, Diversity and Ethics’ have become ‘the global theme of 2020’, not just for Wittenborg, but for the whole planet. Whilst we are dealing with COVID-19 and Global Warming in 2020, racism has also again been pushed to the forefront by the Black Lives Matter protests, resulting from events in the USA. It has always been there, and everywhere, and has never gone away.

A week before Christmas, the Dutch Senate passed the Bill on Language and Accessibility - meant to rein in the tide of English in higher education and ensure the survival of Dutch - after fierce debate.

Recently, Wittenborg University of Applied Sciences hosted approximately 110 students from the Christelijk Lyceum Apeldoorn, whose purpose it was to learn about internationalism. And where better than at Wittenborg, which currently boasts almost 100 different nationalities in terms of its student population?