Windesheim University of Applied Sciences

Hogeschool Windesheim, known internationally as Windesheim University of Applied Sciences, was founded in 1986 in Zwolle and is now one of the larger broad universities of applied sciences in the Netherlands.

It teaches in two regions, on a campus in Zwolle and in two buildings in Almere, ‘t Circus and de Landdrost, where a new site on the Weerwater is under construction. Flevoland joined after Windesheim took over the Almere provision of the Amsterdam university of applied sciences in 2010; the school now counts more than 25,000 students and over 2,700 staff across more than 200 short and long programmes.

Degrees are clustered in domains, among them Business, Media and Law, Technology, Health and Welfare, and Movement and Education, and design sits inside the media and business field. Communication is taught in Zwolle and Almere, Journalism in Zwolle, and ICT – User Experience Design in both cities, where students design, test and improve apps, websites and devices from real user feedback before a half-year graduation assignment.

Windesheim calls its approach personal, with small classes where lecturers know students by name, and practical, through company projects and internships. Practice-oriented research runs through its lectorates and some 1,900 partner organisations; in the Keuzegids HBO 2027 it ranks fourth among Dutch universities of applied sciences.