Annual reports
Breda University of Applied Sciences renders account, among other things, in its annual report.
Annual report
Downloads of the full annual report 2022 and the annual reports of previous years are listed below the summary. Unfortunately, the full annual reports are only available in Dutch.
Summary annual report 2022
As a specialist higher education institute, BUas strives to be a leading international knowledge institute with innovative, high-quality education and research and a strong relevance for business and society. The year under review was the first year of our new strategic direction 2022-2025 ‘BUas+, more than a University of Applied Sciences’. The strategy aims to strengthen BUas’ position as a knowledge institute, with a sense of community involvement, responsibility, optimism and initiative. After two years in which the Covid-19 pandemic swept across the world, resulting in multiple lockdowns that led to online working and studying, this year saw the world opening up again. It was also the first year in which we could fully enjoy our renovated campus, the heart of our BUas community.
Education+
State-of-the-art education is at the heart of our strategic direction. The Covid pandemic led to an acceleration in the use of digitisation in education and testing, as well as a broad acceptance of blended learning as the new norm. In 2022, investments were made in more and better tools; online and offline educational resources are increasingly being used in parallel. Lecturers attended internal courses to redevelop their lectures using blended learning tools. The funds from the Nationaal Programma Onderwijs enabled us to speed up the further improvement of our education, and to counteract the impact of the pandemic. Furthermore, from September 2022, the new bachelor’s programme Applied Data Science & Artificial Intelligence (ADS&AI) started with 79 students.
An important part of our new strategic direction is student ownership of learning. To achieve this aim, a start has been made with the renewal of curricula. This will make it easier for students to choose study components from another study programme or academy or to collaborate in cross-degree learning communities.
Within all degree programmes, further actions were taken to improve study success, which resulted in a bachelor’s success rate of 78%, exceeding BUas’ strategic ambition of 75%. The drop-out rate in the propedeutic phase rose slightly to 21.9%, still exceeding BUas’ ambition of 26%, though this was influenced by the decision to postpone the binding study recommendation.
Traditionally, internationalisation is hardwired into the DNA of our organisation. BUas now has more international students than ever (24.2%) while 21.6% of our teaching staff are of international origin. The number of BUas students travelling abroad for exchanges or work placements rose in comparison to previous year, as travel restrictions were eased, but is still not at pre-pandemic levels. This has led us to continue focusing on internationalisation@home, creating an international mindset in our students as well as staff, even when they are not travelling.
Research & Development+, and connection to industry and social institutions
In 2022, the BUas Research and Graduate School was launched, aimed at bringing professors together and enhancing the cross-domain nature of R&D. Since then, the RGS has worked on improving the visibility of research, designing a grants newsletter, supporting lecturers in developing joint project proposals for external financiers, and making the results of research projects accessible internally and externally.
In order to obtain an internationally recognised position in research, affiliation with international research programmes and participation in international networks is essential. Based on our research profile and research themes - Measurement of experiences for cultural understanding and social inclusion; Contribute to liveable places and sustainable flows; Understanding and application of digital realities for better governance of our society; Applied data science and artificial intelligence for society transitions and Education for sustainable transformation processes – BUas continued advancing collaboration with the industry and other external partners. Even though the hospitality, leisure and tourism industries were still suffering from the effects of the pandemic, as well as facing other challenges in society such as labour shortages and rising costs, collaboration with our industry partners as well as with our public sector partners remains strong and several new collaborations were started.
Further developments took place with regard to developing the professional doctorate (PD), in collaboration with the Association of Universities of Applied Sciences. BUas participates in two domains: Leisure, Tourism & Hospitality (LTH) and Art & Creativity. The first two PD candidates from BUas have started their programmes in 2022.
BUas+ Community, student and staff well-being
With the outbreak of the Covid pandemic, we focused strongly on the well-being of our staff and students. This was appreciated by many staff and students, which is why BUas decided to continue its efforts in supporting the mental health of everyone in the BUas community. We developed a dedicated student wellbeing programme for all students and a soft-landing programme for new first-year students. A great number of extracurricular activities were organised for students, either by BUas itself of the Clubs@BUas and BEST training.
Community Organisation, professionalisation and operational excellence
In the year under review, pilot schemes in team-based working were evaluated and the framework for team-based working was updated. At the end of 2022 all organisational units were working in teams, supported by internal and external coaching available when needed.
BUas’ professionalisation efforts concentrated on digitising its education. Lecturers continued their training in using digital tools and digital didactics so as to be able to offer high-quality blended education. Efforts towards improving the staff’s English proficiency also continued. Other elements within the professionalisation programme focused on the new role of lecturers in learning communities, didactics training, and the BKE (basic examiner qualification) and SKE (senior examiner qualification). The leadership programme was expanded with a programme for management team members.
Financial and key figures
The financial result in 2022 was € 3,744 k plus, with a neutral budget in advance. The positive financial result is the outcome of additional governmental resources and more income in tuition fees due to a higher student intake in September 2022, the phased start of strategic projects, and lower expenses in allocations to personnel provisions in relation to the budget.
All financial numbers in this annual report are presented in thousands of euros, unless stated otherwise.
