Following a decline in enrolment numbers at NHL Stenden in the city from 2,200 to 1,800, the VVD Emmen faction says that the executive municipal board is not doing enough to make Emmen an attractive destination for students.
VVD council member Marcel Meijer told the Emmer Courant, “The issue is flawed student housing. We need to do more to make the city appealing for students.” The VVD faction argues that the city should embrace the fact that it is the only city in Drenthe with its own university of applied sciences.
“Students bring life and fun along with them, and they help to attract amenities that also make the area more appealing for other young residents which makes them less inclined to move away. All of that starts with providing adequate student housing.”
NHL Stenden works with short stay housing provider StudentStay and guarantees non-EU first year students a room. Last year, NHL Stenden marketing and communications director Rob Koning told The Northern Times that sorting out housing in Leeuwarden is usually fairly easy, but admitted that it is a bit harder in Meppel and Emmen.
Student campus
Meijer says that the city should consider converting the Belastingdienst building in the city into student rooms, but also calls for a dedicated student campus. “The executive council says that there are 80 rooms currently under construction, but that is just far too few.”
The Emmen branch of NHL Stenden is the second largest location of the university of applied sciences in the Netherlands and offers 13 different academic programmes, 9 of which are in Dutch and 4 in English. In September of last year, an NHL Stenden at the Emmen campus was accused of murdering his German housemate.
NHL Stenden’s main campus is in Leeuwarden, and the school also has branches in Groningen and Meppel in the Netherlands, as well as four facilities abroad. The Qatar campus made headlines recently for misconduct, namely bribery claims and lower academic standards.
Photo source: Richard Broekhuijzen/Wikipedia
