Peter Birdsall

Background

About Peter Birdsall

Peter Birdsall is President of the Board of Wittenborg University of Applied Sciences in Apeldoorn. He is passionate about quality higher education in the Netherlands, that is inclusive, diverse and embraces internationalisation. His 'fatherland' is England and his 'motherland' is Switzerland. Wittenborg is a completely independent, Business School. With around 1500 students and 200+ employed and affiliated staff in 2023, totally representing more than 120 nationalities, Wittenborg is the most international business school in The Netherlands. Wittenborg's current growth is around 10% per year and it is the most international independent privately funded higher education institute in the Netherlands. The school aims to become the top-ranked Dutch university of applied sciences in the field of international management and sustainable business development. Wittenborg is a so-called ‘boutique’ university; that is to say, a university that maintains a constant student body of around 1,500 high-quality students, maintains a national degree-awarding power and can develop and sustain multiple international accreditations, staff development, an applied sciences research profile, and an international profile. Wittenborg’s goal is to develop into a broad business and management-orientated university of applied sciences in various professional fields, such as Business & Entrepreneurship, Hospitality & Tourism, Arts & Technology, Health & Social Care, and Education. Together with Maggie Feng, Wittenborg's CEO, Peter has embarked upon a journey of continuous development and improvement for the university, steering it towards a path of responsible management and social responsibility both locally and nationally. With a commitment to life-long learning, sustainable management, diversity, internationalisation and ethical practice, Peter continues to invest in Wittenborg's future. Peter’s career started at the age of 16 when he started a Theatre Company and has seen him involved in concerns that have activities such as running a bar, a restaurant, a cleaning company, importing furniture, China consultancy, website design, as well as various training initiatives. In the 1990s, Peter was a pioneer of internationalising mainstream higher education in the Netherlands. Peter has also (once) been 'properly' employed, at a state University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands - between 1996 and 2002, to bring international education to the institute, which succeeded but also sowed the seeds for the Wittenborg (ad)venture-)