Less first years in Zwolle
- Windesheim Flevoland expects about 1650 first years: almost 400 more than the year before.
- Registration figures for now: less first years choose a full time degree course in Zwolle.
The strong growth of the establishment in Almere is firstly because of the enlargement of the portfolio, according to Rien Komen, director of Windesheim Flevoland. Starting this school year, students can go to Flevoland for three new associate degrees: ‘Finance’, ‘Pedagogical Educational Assistant’ and ‘Social Work’. These as well as the new part time degree course Academic Teacher Education in Primary Schools, which attracts about sixty first years. Komen: “Something that wasn’t expected was that the new degree courses don’t cannibalise the other degree courses. So it is about the new audience that otherwise would’ve gone to the University of Applied Sciences of Utrecht or of Amsterdam.”
Besides that, Windesheim Flevoland also wins with regard to a number of already existing degree courses (such as ‘Marketing Management’, ‘ICT’ and ‘Law’) market share concerning other Universities of Applied Sciences. According to Komen, this is mostly thanks to Windesheim’s name recognition and good scores in selection guide magazines. As a final cause he mentions the demographic grow in Flevoland. “We aren’t settled in a shrinking population region, like the east of the country.”
Mostly thanks to Flevoland, Windesheim as a whole is also likely to show growth of the number of first years. Bert Boll, team leader of the student administration, expects about four percent more enrolments than the year before. That is above the national figure: the growth regarding the amount of new first year students at the University of Applied Science in all of The Netherlands is about one percent.
The educational divisions in Zwolle are likely to have a decreasing number of enrolments of first years with regards to full time degree courses than the year before. From the provisional registration numbers we tell that the division Engineering and ICT is growing, Business, Media and Law remains about the same, but that Human Movement and Education and Healthcare and Social work attract less first years.
Especially the ‘new’ degree course Social Work attracts less first years. Jolling Lodema, manager of Social Work: ‘You always see this happening with the development of a broad bachelor. I have seen the same thing happening with Engineering and ICT. When well known names disappear, you instantly see this in the number of students. You come along with a new brand, and you have to work on that until the future students and the work field ‘understand’ what the degree course embodies.’ (WvE/MH)
