60 Years of Pioneering beyond Borders

Episode 1: 1966-1976

Back to our roots with NWIT and VAT (where it all began)

The very first class to start in 1966 numbers exactly 60 (!) students. The idea for a school for ‘Tourism Officers’ – modelled on the Royal Military Academy in Breda – had actually already been conceived back in 1963 by the director of the local VVV. (Who still remembers what that abbreviation actually stands for?) 😉

The Nederlands Wetenschappelijk Instituut voor Toerisme (NWIT) (Netherlands Scientific Institute for Tourism) proves popular from the very start: those first 60 students have been carefully selected from no fewer than 240 applications. By the early 1970s, there are as many as ten times more applicants than available places – all young people aspiring to managerial or supervisory roles in a rapidly expanding tourism industry that is becoming ever more important to the economy at the time.

The pioneering spirit kicks in from the very first class. What do you mean, lecture hall!? The first ever class is held on 6 September 1966 in Café 't Zuid on the Grote Markt in Breda, and is open to anyone who fancies coming along. Just three weeks after that first day, a handful of enterprising students set up Phileas Fogg, a student association that is still very much part of our journey today.

Anyone who thinks that research is something that only features in our later strategy documents is mistaken, because NWIT already has a research department in its first year, funded by a grant of around 40,000 guilders from the Ministry of Economic Affairs in that very same year. And yes, research is – just as it is today – closely intertwined with teaching, forming the foundation of the first course materials.

So what are those classes actually about, back in the late 1960s? ‘Skills for Life’ (as we have them in our curricula today) did not exist yet, but a peek at the curriculum of that era makes for an interesting read 😊

Cluster 1:

• Tourism Geography
• Tourism Typology (the character of regions and countries)
• Tourism Sociology
• Social Geography (peoples and cultures)

Cluster 2:

• two modern languages (French, German or English)
• one additional language (Spanish, Italian or Russian)
• Dutch

Cluster 3:

• Bookkeeping
• Law (transport and customs law)
• Public Relations (graphic techniques)
• Market Research
• Advertising

Cluster 4:

• Worldviews (religions across different countries)
• Cultural History
• Philosophy
• Social Psychology

So tourism is examined from a wide range of perspectives – something we have continued to do throughout our cross-domain teaching ever since. What also stands out (or perhaps not, as there were no super-fast translation tools back then) is the prominent place of languages in the curriculum. Our very first lab is therefore a language lab – a novelty at the time, and NWIT has one.

The study programme and timetable are determined in meetings involving management, staff and students. Critical thinking is actively encouraged  – just as it is today – as evidenced by a remark from one of the first directors: “It is of the utmost importance that students not only become familiar with the tourism industry, but also adopt a highly critical stance towards it. You certainly won’t achieve that by simply making them memorise facts and imitate the current situation. What is needed, on the contrary, are people who, thanks to their studies, are able to bring about positive change.” (Source: Breda Municipal Archives)

In 1968, two years and three months after that first class (which was the full duration of the programme at the time), the first students graduate. The very first NWIT graduate to take up a professional role starts working at the municipality of Gaasterland: on 1 December 1968, the council appoints an ‘officer for recreation’ – a completely new type of role back then.

In that same year, municipal education councillor Ed de Grood sets up  the Tilburg Traffic Education Foundation (Stichting Verkeersonderwijs Tilburg). Its aim is to establish a full-time higher-level technical college in Tilburg for traffic specialists and traffic engineers. The initiative is supported by organisations including the ANWB and Veilig Verkeer Nederland. That strong connection with – and relevance to – professional practice has always been a recurring theme throughout our story.

Four years later, the Verkeersakademie Tilburg (VAT) (Tilburg Traffic Academy) gets off the ground – spelled with a ‘k’, because it’s the 1970s. It is the very first traffic academy in the Netherlands and the first higher professional programme in traffic studies anywhere in Europe. VAT’s approach is decidedly innovative. The programme combines technology, people and society within a single course of study. VAT also pioneers working with real‑world clients: what makes it particularly special is that students work alongside professionals from the field on relevant traffic‑related challenges, meaning that even during their studies, they are already making a tangible contribution to society.

VAT launches in 1972 with 90 students and 9 staff members. Small‑scale from the outset, then – though not yet very diverse. The first traffic specialists to graduate in 1976 are, with one exception, all male.

In the late 1980s, VAT merges with NWIT. Together, they continue under the name Nationale Hogeschool voor Toerisme en Verkeer (Netherlands Institute for Tourism and Traffic) – soon abbreviated to NHTV, the forerunner of what we now know as BUas. But that’s all much later – next time, we’ll first be looking at: 1976-1986: NWIT moves to the Sibeliuslaan location and VAT hits the road

This story of BUas has been lovingly pieced together from ‘the archives’ and our collective memory.  If you do spot any inaccuracies, please don’t hesitate to let us know at [email protected]