Many Wittenborg Staff are Alumni from Dutch Education - Week of the International Student

14.10.2017

Many Wittenborg Staff are Alumni from Dutch Education - Week of the International StudentFrom 13 – 17 November the Netherlands will celebrate the Week of the International Student.

International students in the Netherlands are estimated to contribute €1.57 billion annually to the Dutch treasury. Almost 40% stay on after graduation, including many graduates from WUAS, which is celebrating its 30th year anniversary this year.

If you are an alumnus from Wittenborg, we would love to hear your story!

In fact, many international alumni from Dutch higher education currently work at Wittenborg as academic and support staff.

These include Wittenborg’s chair of the executive board, Peter Birdsall (MA.Ed) – British and Swiss nationality – who graduated from Windesheim University of Applied Sciences in 1997, and continued with a Master of Arts in Education Management through the UK Open University. Wittenborg CEO, Maggie Feng (MSc) from China completed a bachelor's degree in Information Services Management in the Netherlands, before doing a Master of Science in Facility Management from the University of Greenwich, UK.

Also Dutch graduates are the head of Wittenborg’s School of Business, Dr Rauf Abdul, originally from Pakistan, and the head of its School of Hospitality, Esther Gitonga-Bakker, from Kenya, as well as tutor and lecturer George Bosire, also from Kenya. Abdul earned his PhD in September 2015 from the University of Twente, while Gitonga-Bakker and Bosire are currently working on theirs at the University of Wageningen and the Business School Netherlands, respectively.

Among other Dutch alumni working at Wittenborg is student registrar, Santosh Aryal from Nepal, who was one of Wittenborg’s first bachelor's degree graduates. Lecturers include Adeyemi Banjo from Nigeria (MSc, MBA), who joined WUAS in 2010 where he has been lecturing to date, lecturer Lucy Omwoha from Kenya, who completed her MSc in Event Management at Wittenborg and the University of Brighton in the UK, and also the head of process tutoring, Myra Qiu from China, who earned her MSc in Event Management from Wittenborg and Brighton this year. 

International support staff who graduated in the Netherlands are Kriszta Rostás, education and quality support officer from Hungary, who did a master's degree in Economics & Business from the University of Utrecht, communications officer Anesca Smith from South Africa, who graduated with a bachelor's degree in Hospitality Management in 2013, and admissions officer Tri Adiyanti Setiawan (MSc), who completed her master's degree in International Tourism Management at Wittenborg in 2017.

WUP 14/10/2017

by Anesca Smith
©WUAS Press