60 Years of Pioneering beyond Borders. Episode 4: 1996 - 2006

Before the summer holidays, we took you back to the roots of BUas – to where it all began, with NWIT and VAT, and the birth of NHTV after the two merged in 1987.

We've now reached 1996, and by this point we're based at 'de Hop' (as everyone quickly starts calling the new building on Mgr. Hopmansstraat in Breda), home to the transport, planning and logistics (VPL) department and the tourism and leisure department. This year, NHTV organises the HBO Intro Festival for the second time, together with Hogeschool Brabant (now Avans Hogeschool). A graduating NHTV student helps organise this edition of the event, which welcomes new first-year students to Breda.

HBO Intro Festival welcoming new first-year students to Breda

It's not the first time NHTV teams up with Hogeschool Brabant – the two have already joined forces to set up BRESS, the Breda Student Sports Foundation, which is still going strong today!

And speaking of sport: back in the late 1960s, the student introduction amounted to little more than a day at the swimming pool. Thirty years on, that's grown into a full-blown introduction week for our new 'Hopjes', packed with a wide range of sports and games.

A year later, in 1997, the Traffic Engineering programme celebrates its 25th anniversary. We dig up a lovely quote from that time in the archives, from Jan Willem Proper, who is sector director of VPL at the time (he once starts out as a student at VAT, goes on to teach there, and later becomes one of the first associate professors at NHTV – and in the Dutch higher education sector as a whole):

“The Traffic Engineering programme is celebrating a quarter of a century this year. It's the only one in Europe that doesn't just focus on technical engineering. Of course, technical skills matter when it comes to managing traffic and transport properly, but there's more to it than that – like how roads fit into the landscape around them. That's why we also focus on the environment, road safety, accessibility, transport management, communication, and how people get around.”

So there's already attention for the environment and liveability back then. And what about liveability at our university? In 1997, NHTV has around 3,500 students, half of today's number. There could have been many more nowadays if the merger with Ichtus Hogeschool in Rotterdam (now Inholland), which is on the cards at the time, hadn’t fallen through. Luckily, we've stayed small 😊

International

But we go big when it comes to international ambitions. And as a result, our university's name changes to NHTV internationale hogeschool Breda in September 2001, with NHTV Breda University of Applied Sciences as its international counterpart. NHTV is no longer an abbreviation but a brand name. And English-taught study programmes become the rule rather than the exception.

New study programmes come along in quick succession. In 2001, the Netherlands gets a new hotel school as we launch the English-taught Hotel Management programme on Sibeliuslaan. A year later, students can also enrol in International Facility Management there, a relatively new programme at the time. At ‘de Hop’, the newcomers are Media and Entertainment Management (now Creative Business) and Logistics and Economics (now Logistics Management). The ‘Kort-hbo’ programme at the Sibeliuslaan location comes to an end, and its successor arrives in 2004: ‘Functiegericht toerisme en recreatie’.

So our hotel school celebrates its 25th anniversary this year! With Hotel and Facility together at ‘de Sib’, the building soon starts to feel too small in the early 1990s. At first, the solution is to cover over the inner garden. Thankfully, during the 2008 renovation, it's restored to its former glory – fit for a royal visit, no less, and that's exactly what happens (don't miss the next episode ;)

Another crowning glory comes in 2004, when NHTV – as the first higher education institution in the Netherlands – receives the TedQual certificate from the UN World Tourism Organization. It's international recognition of the high quality of our teaching in tourism and leisure. Recognition from the World Leisure Organization and the International Facility Management Association soon follows.

So NHTV keeps building steadily on its reputation as a specialist institute. The Media and Entertainment Management programme (now Creative Business) gets the ‘top programme’ label from the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW). It is one of just four higher education bachelor's programmes in the Netherlands selected to take part in the ‘Ruim baan voor talent’ (‘Clear the way for talent’) experiment.

In 2005, we launch our first pre-master's, Strategic Business Management and Marketing (SBM), preparing fourth-year bachelor’s students for a smooth transition to Master of Science programmes at partner universities, both at home and abroad.

Clear the way for our media students!

It's precisely because NHTV's different study programmes are so closely intertwined that an inspiring environment naturally emerges, one where knowledge can grow and the various fields of study strengthen each other and the world around them. In 2003, for instance, a joint lecture on communication, media and sports management is given to NAC football players.

And in that inspiring environment, plenty of new ideas keep popping up. As early as 2004, then-councillor Adank is already toying with the idea of a games programme in Breda. NHTV students look into it for a graduation project, working together with Playlogic, a computer games maker whose development arm is based in Breda at the time.

Plans for a campus on Mgr. Hopmansstraat are already taking shape, with not just teaching buildings but also cafés, a restaurant and a media library. The connection with the ‘Alles voor Allen’ congregation, better known as ‘the sisters across the road’, is also forged during this period. From then on, the board regularly drops in for tea with the sisters, but there's still a long way to go before the convent is really ours (once the Pope's put his signature on it!). More on that in the next episode.

Next time:
2006-2016: NHTV spreads out across Breda and the rest of the world

Also read:

Episode 1:1966-1976

Episode 2: 1976 - 1986

Episode 3: 1986 - 1996