'Debbie' - Internationalisation more than just an international classroom or study abroad.

Any international university, or college, must have strong support systems for its international students coming to study abroad, or local students going for a period of study or work placement in another country.

But it doesn’t just end there – international institutions often provide deep support and assistance to their international visitors, just as they are the main base for their local students going out to study or work in a foreign land.
 
International students often need in depth information and help in all sorts of areas, from housing, to filling in official forms, from opening a bank account to applying for a visa, from medical insurance to health and dental care.
 
Sometimes, but very rarely, help is required in an ultimate health care decision, as was the case of Wittenborg’s Chinese student Debbie Kuang (1979-2012).
 
Yesterday, Wittenborg’s Maggie Feng, Peter Birdsall and former business lecturer Henry Muusz, whose family helped care for her, visited Debbie’s grave at the cemetery in Epe, which they maintain.
 
5 years ago, Debbie was awarded an honorary degree. She died of cancer on May 22nd 2012, and is buried in the place of Epe, a town 10km to the north of Apeldoorn, after her parents agreed with Wittenborg's directors to have this arranged.
 
On receiving her degree at the ceremony held at the Epe Hospice on 20th May 2012, Debbie requested that the institute support students from abroad to study in the Netherlands, by setting up a fund in her name.

Since her passing, Wittenborg launched a 'Debbie Scholarship Fund', that supports OTS, Holland Scholarship and other awards. The university has awarded more than a quarter of a million euro in scholarships and study aid to international students from developing countries.
 
Wittenborg aims to launch a new variant of the 'Debbie Scholarship Fund' at its November Wittenborg 30 Gala.