Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences

In our mission, we state as Van Hall Larenstein that we aim to train professionals who contribute to a sustainable and better world. We wish to accomplish this by cooperating in a pleasant and yet productive way with each other and with our network partners. Van Hall Larenstein is a university of applied sciences. We train our students to become high-quality, ambitious and innovative professionals who contribute to a more sustainable world. As a university of applied sciences, we conduct high-quality practice-based research, which enhances both our teaching and our position as a research institute. As a research institute, we supply practice-based solutions for issues from national and international business and society. Alongside regular higher vocational study programmes, we also provide master programmes, postgraduate higher vocational training programmes and courses for regional, national and international students.

VHL University of Applied Sciences delivers applied research which is significant for our teaching and our environment. We will achieve this by, Acquiring orders from business, government and civil-society organisations with a turnover in 2017 worth at least 15% of the VHL total, Developing qualitative and quantitative indicators and defining them in terms of targets for the quality of research and the significance of the research for our teaching, stakeholders and customers. The indicators we have in mind relate to the degree of participation by students in research projects, the creation of exposure for the profile and customer satisfaction.

To realise its vision, Van Hall Larenstein makes accurate choices when it comes to external profiling and we define a clear selection for regional, national, and international future students and professionals. At the end of this planning period we wish to realise a number of strategic main objectives. To achieve this we operate in the following fields:

• Education: all our study programmes will have three AISHE stars at the end of the plan period. Among other things, this means that our sustainable development vision will be visible in our teaching and that expertise in sustainable development will be present right across the study programme;
• Operational management: by structuring our operational management in a sustainable manner, we will qualify for the Corporate Social Responsibility quality mark in combination with our study programmes. The aim is to achieve ‘entry’ level in 2014 and 'certified' in 2017;
• Regional development: by 2017 at the latest, we will acquire the BREEAM sustainable regional development certificate for our locations in Velp and Leeuwarden, where our own buildings are located;
• By the end of the plan period, we will opt for the NVAO’s (Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders) special 'sustainable education' quality mark for the individual study programmes and for VHL as a whole.

Van Hall Larenstein wants to be a personal institute, where students are satisfied with their education. The strategic objectives for our education are:

• to improve the quality of the study programmes, as shown by the rankings. We want:
• VHL as an institution to be in the Top 5 in the Dutch Guide to Higher Vocational Education (Keuzegids HBO);
• VHL to achieve an average institutional score of 3.8 in the National Student Survey (NSE);
• at least 4500 students by the end of the plan period.

Van Hall Larenstein is an international university of applied sciences with a focus on sustainability. As a knowledge institute we combine education, delivered by passionate experts, and applied research within the various professorships. We train our students to become high-quality, ambitious and innovative professionals who contribute to a more sustainable world. Van Hall Larenstein has chosen a clear profile with three related areas of focus with which we differentiate ourselves from other universities of applied sciences. Van Hall Larenstein is based on two locations in the Netherlands: Leeuwarden and Velp.

Van Hall Larenstein is anchored in the eight points below, which together form our vision:

• VHL is the most sustainable university of applied sciences in the Netherlands and demonstrates this in every study programme, in the content of its research and in its operational management;
• VHL chooses a clear profile with content that forms the framework for all our strategic choices in the field of education and practice-based research;
• Every study programme at VHL contributes towards at least one of the priority areas of the profile, with all students learning to work in multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary fashion;
• VHL is focused on regional, national and international students;
• Alongside regular education, VHL wants to meet the demand for training from the professional field;
• VHL is a personal institution and therefore wishes to give space to individual students to develop their talents in an inspirational environment;
• Through research and knowledge valorisation, VHL contributes to innovative and sustainable developments in collaboration with partners from the professional field;
• VHL is a financially sound and future-proof organisation.