Covid

“Lessons Learned at Austrian SMEs during the Pandemic” was the title of the speech delivered by Wittenborg Senior Lecturer Dr Alexander Bauer at the first ‘INCREDIBLE’ Conference held on 26-27 October, 2020.

The Dutch education sector has been spared any additional COVID-19 regulations, with prime minister Mark Rutte saying that "education is too important" to impose more restrictions. However, other sectors – like restaurants, bars and cafés – were not able to escape as the government announced a partial lockdown for at least a month as of Wednesday 10 p.m. with a series of new regulations.

Faced with the dilemma of finding an internship in the trying times of COVID-19, Wittenborg student Busola Awosika resorted to an unusual approach to find a work placement. Instead of applying online, which is how most vacancies are filled these days, she decided to go old-school and make a cold call to the company's headquarters in Arnhem. And it worked. This week she started as a marketing intern at the European Association of Urology, which represents urology professionals from around the world.

The Dutch government introduced new measures this week to curb the spread of COVID-19, but nothing that directly impacts higher education for the time being. It is now strongly requested that all persons wear face masks in public indoor spaces throughout the Netherlands. From Monday 5th October the wearing of facemasks is compulsory at all Wittenborg locations, unless sitting behind a desk, or in a classroom maintaining distance from others according to government guidelines (1.5 metres).

Due to COVID-19 and the continued travel restrictions in many countries, the annual Hospitality and Tourism Educators Conference (EuroCHRIE), due to be held in Denmark next week, has been postponed until 2021. Consequently the 2021 conference, which was supposed to be hosted by Wittenborg University of Applied Science in Apeldoorn next year, has now been moved to 2022.

Hybrid learning – a mix of online and classroom sessions – will become the new norm in the coming academic year and Wittenborg University of Applied Sciences plans to excel in it. This was the message from Wittenborg President Peter Birdsall to staff as they prepare to continue delivering quality education to new and current students despite the looming presence of COVID-19 around the world.

The value of data in fighting the spread of COVID-19 has been emphasised by authorities around the world - from promoting mobile applications tracing the contacts of positive cases, to the exchange of data by researchers. But where does this leave an individual's right to privacy? Wittenborg lecturer Stanley Mbelu (LL.M) co-authored a recent paper on the subject with fellow academic Fortune Nwaiwu from the Tomas Bata University in the Czech Republic. It was published on Social Science Research Network.

Welcome to all our students from around the world, whether you are studying in the Netherlands, in Germany, or in Austria, or in one of the many other countries where you may be at this time. Whichever programme you are studying, the Bachelor of Business Administration, the Master of Business Administration, or the Master of Science MBM programme, we hope you will get the very most out of your studies.

We are starting this academic year, in 2020, after having experienced a period of disruption, angst, and lockdown across the world caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. By now it is clear that we will be living with the effects of the coronavirus for some time to come and there is no magic solution.  What is important is that we do not let this life-changing event stop us from developing, from learning, from improving our livelihoods, and from keeping moving on forwards.